Wakayama Yasoji was born in Hokkaido in 1903. In 1926 he graduated from the law department of Chûô University. Together with Onchi Kôshirô and Maekawa Senpan he studied woodblock printing, and at the same time he studied Japanese-style painting as well as Western-style painting.
His greatest contribution to hanga were mimeograph stencil prints, which technique he started in 1941. In 1943 he became a member of the Nihon Hanga Kyôkai. During the war he worked in a print shop of the Navy Ministry.
He contributed a print to every issue of the First Thursday Collection - Ichimokushû (1944-1950).
