Born in Ibaraki prefecture, Kinouchi Yoshi went to Tokyo to study art, in particular sculpture. he had his first exhibition in 1916. In 1921 he first went to London, then to Paris, where he met Foujita and studied with Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929), an assistant of Auguste Rodin. He became a member of the Société des Artistes Indépendants, and exhibited with them. He fell in love with archaic Greek sculpture, and started specializing in terracotta. His main subjects were nudes and animal figures.
In 1935 he returned to Japan. He had a few exhibitions before the war, and after the war he continued his work, mainly on small-scale sculptures. He died of pneumonia in 1977.
After his death a presigious sculpture prize was named after him.
