Noda Kyūho, given name Dosan, was born in Tokyo in 1879. He studied Japanese-style painting with Kogyo Terazaki (1866-1919) and Western style painting at Hakubakai (The White Horse Society). He attended the Tokyo School of Fine Arts for a year around 1896 where he developed the sketching ability that allowed him to earn his living as an illustrator for the Osaka newspaper Asahi shinbun. In Osaka, he also did book illustration and became a friend of the nihonga and woodblock artist Tsunetomi Kitano (1880-1947). In 1917 he returned to Tokyo where he remained, concentrating on nihonga paintings with cultural and religious themes.