1886 – Born in Ushigome Ward, Tokyo Prefecture (present-day Shinjuku, Tokyo)

1905 – Graduated from the affiliated middle school of Tokyo Higher Normal School; entered the Department of Western Painting, Tokyo Fine Arts School

1910 – Graduated from the undergraduate program, Department of Western Painting, Tokyo Fine Arts School

1913 – Traveled to France and settled in Montparnasse, Paris

1919 – Selected for the reestablished Salon d’Automne; recommended for membership

1925 – Awarded the Legion of Honour from France

1933 – Returned to Japan

1934 – Became a member of the Nika Association

1938 – Traveled to Okinawa; went to China as a war artist for the Second Sino-Japanese War and subsequently produced war record paintings

1949 – Invited to the United States as a professor at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, New York

1955 – Acquired French nationality

1959 – Baptized in a French cathedral and took the name Léonard

1961 – Moved to Villiers-le-Bâcle, a suburb of Paris, converting a farmhouse into his studio