Kitano Tsunetomi was a well known bijin-ga printmaker and painter. His woodblock prints have a painterly quality; and look very similar to the scroll paintings on which they were based. In 1880; he was born in Kanazawa with the name Tomitaro. As a young man; Tsunetomi worked as an apprentice to a woodblock carver after which he became a print carver for the newspaper Hokkoku Shinpo. He later moved to Osaka to study nihon-ga style painting under Inano Toshitsune; a student of Yoshitoshi. In 1901; he began working as an illustrator for the newspaper Osaka Shinbun.

Beginning in 1910; Tsunetomi began to exhibit paintings in the Bunten shows; and he won a prize in the 5th Bunten (1911) for his bijin-ga painting 'Rain during Sunshine'. He published a folio of four prints in 1918 titled 'Spring and Autumn in the Licensed Quarter' (Kuruwa no shunju). These designs were self-carved and printed. In 1924; Tsunetomi founded an art school and publishing house called Hakuyodo. Pictures From History