Shuho was from the Shimane Prefecture, and ran away at the age of 13 in order to ask to become a student of Kaburagi Kiyokata (sleeping on Kiyokata's doorstep the first night). Although initially his parents refused and took him home, eventually he was able to join first the Kawabata School of Painting at Kasugacho, Koishikawa, and later the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. At the age of 21 he was forced to end his studies (due to family troubles), but was fortunate to find support and a place to live in residence of the Marquis Ikeda Nakahiro (1877-1948), a patron of the arts who was the 14th head of the Ikeda clan and associated with Emperor Taisho. Shuho worked at a newspaper in Tokyo, and then quit in order to go to Korea to travel and paint. When he returned to Japan he settled first in Kyoto, and then in Osaka. (Notice from publisher Nichigetsu Shoin)
