Ito Seiu, originally named Ito Hajime, was born in the Asakusa district of Tokyo and enjoyed a varied artistic education in metalwork, ivory carving, painting and later sculpture. He started his career as a newspaper illustrator but is best known as the 'father of bondage painting', for which he used as a model Sahara Kise who later became his second wife. He also painted ghostly scenes and other subjects from the Edo Period, often drawing his inspiration from the work of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892).

He fell foul of government censors during the 1930s and much of his work was destroyed during the Tokyo air raids of spring 1945. His surviving paintings are rare.

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