Born in Falls Church, Virginia, Major Vincent Hack first came to Japan in 1947. An artist himself, working as a medical illustrator, Hack was quick to seek out the talented woodblock artist Hiroshi Yoshida in Tokyo. He asked Yoshida to be his teacher, but it took several years for Hack to find a teacher and begin his study of woodblock printmaking. He began with a six-month study of color analysis, followed by careful training with a master block cutter. Though he left Japan in 1951, Hack continued to practice printmaking back home in the United States.