Born 1895 in Yokohama. Moved to Tokyo in 1898. 1917, moved to Victoria, Canada due to his father's job. Crossed to Alaska through Seattle and worked as a laborer in a fish canning factory. Returned to Japan in 1918. 1921, started work as an English teacher at Utsunomiya Middle School (now Utsunomiya High School), and also coached the baseball team (left the position in 1942). At this time, began to seriously work on woodblock prints. His work, "Black Cat" was selected for the 4th Nihon Sosaku Hanga Kyokai Exhibition in 1922. 1926, was selected for the 5th of the same exhibition with his gentle and bright emerald green "Early Summer Breeze" - it's said that this is the work that inspired Munakata Shiko to begin printmaking. 1945, moved to his wife's hometown in Hokkaido, where he continued making prints with motifs of Ainu customs and the landscape of silos while working as a teacher at Tomakomai Middle School. 1949, returned to Utsunomiya and became a teacher at Tochigi Prefectural Utsunomiya Girls' High School (until 1958). After the war, focused on works with themes of Westernization. Passed away in 1972, age 77. In 1992, a former student from Utsunomiya Middle School, Hasegawa Katsujiro (Head of Printining at Mainichi Shimbun), donated around 2,000 prints for the opening of the Kanuma Municipal Art Museum of Kawakami Sumio.