It? Takashi was born in Shizuoka Prefecture. He was one of the lesser known landscape artists who designed prints for the shin hanga publisher Watanabe Sh?zabur?. Like several other print artists of this period, including Ito Shinsui and Kawase Hasui, It? Takashi studied painting under Kaburagi Kiyokata. He graduated from the Kyoto Higher Polytechnic School of Designing where he studied Western-style painting, the Kyoto Higher Technical Art School, where he studied traditional Japanese-style painting and the Tokyo Academy of Fine Arts where again he studied traditional Japanese painting. Takashi primarily worked as a painter and started making color woodblock prints in 1922, which he did intermittently throughout the rest of his career.  He designed about 85 woodblock prints from the early 1920's through 1965. Many of Takashi's prints are idealistic images that emphasize the beauty of the unspoiled Japanese landscape. He enjoyed depicting dramatic seasonal and weather phenomena and often used bright, almost surreal colors to emphasize these changes.