Seishi Takanezawa attended normal school in the Togichi Prefecture and became a teacher at the Utsunomiya Elementary School. He then moved to Tokyo to work as a teacher for more than 20 years (1929-48) at the Yaguchi East Elementary School in the Ota district. Takanezawa exhibited at the 1934 Nika Exhibition. In addition to paintings in the Western style, he also produced book illustrations. For many years illness kept him from painting. In Japanese, his entry is titled Naginata, referring to a medieval Japanese pole weapon, similar to the European glaive or halberd. Fighting with the naginata is one of the traditional Japanese martial arts.