Seihô was born in Kyôto. As a child, he loved to draw and wanted to become an artist. He was a disciple of Kôno Bairei of the Maruyama-Shijô school of traditional painting. In 1882, two of his works received awards at the Naikoku Kaiga Kyoshinkai (Domestic Painting Competition), one of the first modern painting competitions in Japan, which launched him on his career.
During the Exposition Universelle in Paris (1900), he toured Europe, where he studied Western art. After returning to Japan he established a unique style, combining the realist techniques of the traditional Japanese Maruyama–Shijo school with Western forms of realism borrowed from the techniques of Turner and Corot. This subsequently became one of the principal styles of modern Nihonga. His favorite subjects were animals -often in amusing poses, such as a monkey riding on a horse. He was also noted for his landscapes.
From the start of the Bunten exhibitions in 1907, Seihô served on the judging committee. In 1909 he became a professor at the Kyôto Municipal College of Painting (the forerunner to the Kyôto City University of Arts). Seihô also established his own private school, the Chikujokai. Many of his students later went on to establish themselves as noted artists, including Tokuoka Shinsen and Uemura Shôen.
In 1913, Seihô was appointed as an Imperial Household Artist, and in 1919 was nominated to the Imperial Fine Arts Academy (帝国美術院, Teikoku Bijutsu-in). He was one of the first persons to be awarded the Order of Culture when it was established in 1937.
