Born in Fukuoka Prefecture. In Japan he was active as a painter of landscape and of mountains; from 1899, at the age of twenty-three, he crossed to the United States several times and held exhibitions of his watercolours and oils at the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and many other museums, so that he is well known abroad. From about 1920 he began making traditional woodblock prints, and from 1925 he acted as his own publisher, opening new ground in the field. He is known as the foremost landscape painter of the Meiji, Taisho and Showa eras. The Sailing Boats: Glittering Sea, from the Inland Sea series, is famous for having hung in the office of Diana, Princess of Wales. Among his best-known print series are The Inland Sea and Twelve Scenes in the Japan Alps. Large exhibitions in recent years have brought him fresh attention.