Murakami Kagaku was a Japanese painter and illustrator, noted for his numerous Buddhist subjects and advancement in the techniques of nihonga painting in the early 20th century.
He was born in Osaka as Takeda Shinichi. His parents divorced when he was a child and he was raised in Kobe, taking his maternal grandfathers name in 1904. In 1903, he entered the Kyoto City School of Arts and Crafts, graduating in 1907 and entering the Kyoto City Art College in 1909, from which he graduated in 1913. His work was accepted for display at the 5th Bunten Exhibition in 1911, and in 1916, he won a special prize for his first Buddhistthemed work at the 10th Bunten Exhibition. The same year, he moved into Kodaiji temple in Kyoto as a lay monk. In 1918, he created the Society for the Creation of a National Painting Style with Tsuchida Bakusen and three other young nihonga artists from the Kyoto area.
Source: Wikipedia