Nagao Ueno was born in Hyōgo prefecture in Japan in 1904 and studied Western style watercolor as well as woodblock printmaking. He was a member of Nihon Hanga Kyōkai (the Japanese Print Association) from the year 1953. This association was founded in 1918 by a small group of artists hoping to promote a new, modern style of printmaking. This group advocated for the sōsaku hanga or “creative print,” one of two modernist print styles to emerge in early 20th century Japan.
