After graduating from Tokyo Imperial University's Department of German Literature, he was sent by Ministry of Education to Europe, where he studied for three years in Paris and Berlin.

Among the works he translated were Goethe's An Anthology, Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Out of My Life and Thought: An Autobiography by Albert Schweitzer.

After World War II, Takeyama became famous for his novel, Biruma no Tategoto ("Harp of Burma"), which was serialized in Akatonbo ('The Red Dragonfly'), a literary magazine aimed primarily at children, over 1947–1948, before being published in book format in October 1948.

In 1959, Takeyama created a literary magazine, Jiyu ("Freedom"), together with fellow novelist Hirabayashi Taiko.

Takeyama became a member of the Japan Art Academy in 1983, and in the same year he was awarded the Kikuchi Kan Prize for an anthology of eight of his most notable works.