Japanese-style painter. After becoming apprenticed to ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi at the age of six, he changed his master to Maemura Towa and then Kano Tohaku and obtained the license of the Kano School. He started drawing ukiyo-e around the end of the Ansei era (1854-1860). He created a variety of paintings, including hand-painted drawings and woodblock paintings, with humorous brushwork and exceptional drawing skills, and had many connections with Westerners, including having the architect Josiah Conder as his student, and his works are highly acclaimed at home and abroad.