Known for employing vivid colors and bold strokes for still-life and landscape, Migishi contributed greatly to the establishment and elevation of the status of female artists in the Japanese art scene.

[1][2][3] Born Setsuko Yoshida in Nakashima-gun (later Oniishi, now Ichinomiya), Aichi Prefecture, into a wealthy family who built a textile factory in Owari, she was the sixth of ten children.

Due to a congenital dislocation of the hip joint, Migishi had a major operation during her infant times at a hospital in Nagoya.

In the same month, her works Jigazō (自画像, Self-Portrait), Fūkei (風景, Landscape), Sazanka (山茶花, Camellia), and Kijō nika (机上二果, Two Fruits on a Table) were accepted to the 3rd Shunyō-kai Exhibition (春陽会展).

In April of the same year, Migishi, together with Hitoyo Kai and Koko Fukazawa, formed the Women's Yōga Association (婦人洋画協会).

[11] However, in four years, Migishi would quit from Dokuritsu in protest of the association's decision not to admit female painters as members.

[10] Also in 1939, Migishi became a teacher at the Bijutsu Kōgei Gakuin (美術工芸学院, Academy of Arts and Crafts), a school established to provide artistic education for women.

[1] In September 1945, the first post-war solo exhibition of Setsuko Migishi was held at Nichid Gallery in Ginza, Tokyo.

The artist absorbed the culture that surrounded Western painting and was much inspired by the relationship among the dry climate in Europe, its landscape, and colors.

In 1964, she set up a studio on the hills of Ōiso, Kanagawa, and the landscape there, as supposed to mostly still-life that she worked on prior to this, became the motif that Migishi frequently engaged with.

In 1969, Migishi, with Tamako Kataoka, Fukuko Okubo and other nine members held the Joryū Sōgō-ten (女流総合展, Women’s General Exhibition).

It includes a permanent collection of works, temporary exhibitions and art related lectures, as well as different activities and showings of Setsuko's documentaries.