Tadashi Kaminagai was born in Hiroshima, Japan in 1899. The artist moved to France in 1927 and settled in Paris, where he first studied frame making and decoration. Later, he was funded by Kohei Miyamoto and begins to study painting. During this period in Paris, he often sketches in the suburbs with Henri Matisse, Pierre Bonnard, and Léonard Tsugouharu Foujita. He returned to Japan during the war, then moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1941 as he won the Silver Award at the National Gallery of Art Salon in Brazil. He was the second Japanese to have ever received this honor since 1938. He also served as the committee member of the National Art Exhibition in Brazil. Nagai returned to Paris and died in 1982.