Originally, under the over-all direction of Itō, Chikashi Koizumi, Mokichi Saitō, Jun Ishiwara and others took turns as editors.
Under Koizumi, a pattern of delayed or missing issues ensued, and in 1912 a schism with Saitō and others deepened, exacerbating the problem of erratic publication.
In February of 1915 Shimaki became the editor and publisher, and a formal sales relationship with Iwanami Shoten was established on March 1st.
Shimaki kept the accounts in order, started a buying club for artwork by a member of the group, the painter Hirafuku Hyakusui, and worked to expand membership.
Shimaki's students such as Kohei Tsuchida [ja] and Juztō Kagoshima [ja] inherited his strict "drawing from nature" style, but this tended towards narrow formalism, resulting in Koizumi, Ishiwara, Shinobu Orikuchi and others withdrawing from Araragi and founding Nikkō[4] in 1924, together with Hakushū Kitahara, Yūgure Maeda, and others.