Born in Edo (Tokyô), Kobayashi Kiyochika first studied briefly with Kawanabe Gyôsai and Shibata Zeshin. Between 1876 and 1881 he made a series of landscapes, in which he showed the degree of the assimilation of Western influences. Later he also became known as a satirist, and cartoonist. In the last part of his career he made many battle triptychs during the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars, and he also resumed making landscape prints. He worked until the year before his death.
