[3] When he was thirteen years old he moved to Edo (Tokyo) to study painting and serve as an apprentice to a stock merchant.

[2] However, some accounts say that he was not exposed to photography until he returned to Edo to study art, becoming a student of Kanō Tōsen Nakanobu, a well-established painter in service to the shogunate.

[3] Renjō acquired his first camera in 1861 from the American photographer John Wilson by trading it for a painting of a panoramic scene.

[4] He continued to open studios in the city, primarily focusing on portraiture, and changed his name to Shimooka Renjō in 1865.

[3] He was honored by the government of Tokyo before his death for his influence,[4] and was elected to join the Japan Photographic Society in 1893.