Ueda Gagyû, also known as Ueda Eiichi, was born in Hyôgo prefecture in 1919. He was trained as a Japanese-style painter and graduated at the Kawabata Painting School in 1941. He won a prize for his work at the Seventh Japanese Modern Art Exhibit in 1966. He founded an artists' association called "62 layers" in 1961 and was a member of this group until 1969. His book on traditional Japanese painting, written in 1980, is titled "The Techniques and Process of Nihonga Painting". He is mainly known as a painter and started making woodblock prints as a way to gain greater insight into Japanese-style painting.
