He usually went by his given name, Kimbei, because his clientele, mostly non-Japanese-speaking foreign residents and visitors, found it easier to pronounce than his family name.

[3]: 8 Kusakabe Kimbei worked with Felice Beato and Baron Raimund von Stillfried as a photographic colourist and assistant.

[5] Many of the photographs in the studio's catalogue featured depictions of Japanese women, which were popular with tourists of the time.

[5]: 10  Kimbei preferred to portray female subjects in a traditional bijinga style, and hired geisha to pose for the photographs.

[7][8] Around 1885, Kimbei acquired the negatives of Felice Beato and of Stillfried, as well as those of Uchida Kuichi.