Takahashi Shōtei studying art, Shotei and Terazaki Kogyo founded the Japan Youth Painting Society in 1889. In 1907, as a successful artist, he was recruited by Shōzaburō Watanabe to contribute to the Shin Hanga ("New Prints") art movement in Japan. Watanabe helped to fulfill the Western demand for Ukiyoe woodblock prints which would be similar to familiar historical masters of that genre, including Hiroshige. In about 1921 Shotei added the artistic name of Hiroaki. In 1923 the Great Kanto earthquake (and subsequent fire) destroyed Watanabe's facilities; this included all Shin Hanga woodblocks. Thus, Shotei recreated prior designs destroyed in the Great Kanto
1923 Great Kantō earthquake study engineering. On the way, the 1923 earthquake strikes, damaging the train and causing a huge fire in the city. In the 2017 josei manga "Fushigi Yûgi Byakko Senki" (by Yuu Watase), the heroine Suzuno Osugi enters "The Universe of the Four Gods" during the earthquake after her dying father Takao orders her to so she will survive the disaster. After a brief time there she's sent back to the already destroyed Tokyo and she, alongside her prospect love interest Seiji Horie and two young boys named Hideo and Kenichi, are taken in by a friend of the late Takao,