Born in Nagano in 1890, Moriyama Shôji changed his name into Kitazawa Sh^ji in 1929. He was employed as a schoolteacher, and he studied lithography and etching. As early as 1919 he exhibited woodcuts at Nihon Sôsaku-Hanga Kyôkai exhibitions, of which society he was a member. He was a founding member of the Nihon Hanga Kyôkai, and he contributed to the most important pre-war Hanga magazines, e.g. HANGA and Han geijutsu. He also contributed to the well-known series One hundred views of new Japan - Shin Nihon hyakkei in 1939. He specialized in scenery prints of ShinshÅ«. Nothing is known of his activities after the war, nor is his date of death (these two facts probably being related).
