Print artist. Kawachi was born in Uenohara in Yamanashi Prefecture. He graduated in 1973 from the Oil Painting Department of Tama Art University, but had already begun to experiment with prints as a result of the influence of the lively printmaking department there. He won the newcomer's prize at the Japanese Print Association Exhibition in 1970. From graduation up to 1985 he taught at his old university, at which time he went on a Monbusho (Ministry of Education) Scholarship to Columbia University, New York, Graduate School, followed by travel in Europe in 1986. In 1976 he had won the Grand Prix at the Japanese Print Association Exhibition and from then on worked mainly in woodblock, having experimented until then with silk screen, lithograph and even collages. His mature style has been semi-abstract, almost always on dark backgrounds, with constant reference to mechanical stress. He has periodically tried other forms of subject-matter but always so far returned to his basic themes. He has developed a potent combination of straightforward woodblock ('anastatic' to use his word) with engraved blocks (intaglio). Some of his compositions have been very large and in series of sheets. Until around 1982/3 he used the name Kawachi Shigeyuki.