Beisen Kubota is mainly known as a painter, a pupil of Suzuki Hyakunen. Together with Kôno Bairei he founded the Kyoto Prefectural School of Painting in 1880 (where he also taught), and - again with Bairei - the Kyoto Bijutsu Kyôkai in 1890. In 1894 he became an illustrator with the army and he actually accompanied the troops during the war with China in 1894-5.
In 1911 Henry P. Bowie dedicated his On the laws of Japanese painting to him. Towards the end of his life Beisen became blind, and he died at a relatively young age.
