Kanpo Yoshikawa was born in Kyoto and studied woodblock printing and painting under Tosui Nishibori and Seiho Takeuchi before graduating from Kyoto School of Painting. He worked in many fields, becoming a successful writer, stage designer and painter. However, Kanpo is best known for his yakusha-e woodblock prints, or "actor prints." He based his style on traditional Japanese woodblock printing, but successfully incorporated aspects of western styles to produce the some of the finest examples of woodblock print portraiture.