In 1896, he moved to Tokyo following his younger brother Kokkan who left three years earlier, and became a disciple of Kawabata Gyokusho.

He also learned yamato-e techniques of portraiture from Kobori Tomoto, bird-and-flower painting from Kajita Hanko, Kano school line drawing from Hashimoto Gaho.

This includes The Visit (Otodure), his most known work which won nito sho (highest prize) in Bunten in 1910 (currently at National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo).

[2] In order to pay back his debt, Chikuha produced hundreds of Sun, on sea waves, which caused his reputation to decline in the artistic community.

Starting the winter of 1935, Chikuha suffered from bronchial asthma until he died at his home in Hongo, Tokyo on June 2 at the age of 59.