Ishiwata (Shoichiro) Koitsu was a nihonga painter, textile designer, stencil, and shin hanga print artist born in 1897 in Shiba, Tokyo. Before becoming an artist, he studied painting techniques and fabric design under his brother-in-law Igusa Senshin. Throughout the 1920s, Ishiwata established himself as a fabric designer at the Nozawaya department store in Yokohama and gradually became interested in hanga through Kawase Hasui. 

Ishiwata specialized in simple, nocturnal scenes that captured the poignant beauty of everyday life in the city. His mastery of detail, lighting, and poetic dignity is best demonstrated in View of Koyasucho in Kanagawa Prefecture (1931), which recalls the works of Meiji print artist Inoue Yasuji. In 1930, he took the name Koitsu and devoted himself to hanga. Through his association with Hasui, Ishiwata published a set of prints depicting small towns and neighborhoods for publisher Watanabe Shozaburo in 1931. His later works also include Collection of Pictures of Toys (c. 1935) and Hot Spring Landscapes (c. 1940). From 1935, Ishiwata began working with stencil prints, which were published by Kato Junji.