Kitaoka Fumio was a sosaku hanga artist born in 1918 in Tokyo, Japan. As a junior high student, Kitaoka balanced compulsory education with artistic hobbies, attending courses at the Hongo Painting Institute and Doshusha school. 

In 1937, he was admitted to the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and joined the Western-style division. Kitaoka studied oil painting with Fujishima Takeji and took adjunct mokuhanga courses under Hiratsuka Un'ichi during his final two years. After graduating in 1941, the young artist found employment as an art teacher and soon afterward became engaged. 

He contributed to Kitsutsuki hanga-shu from 1942 to 1943, became a member of Nihon Hanga Kyokaiin '43, and the following year evacuated to Fujino with his wife. It was during this time that Hiratsuka recommended him for a position at the East Asia Cultural Development Society in Manchuria, an offer he was obliged to accept. Almost two years later, in the wake of defeat and the collapse of Manchuria, Kitaoka and his family embarked on a long, arduous journey home through the Chinese interior. Upon his return in 1947, Kitaoka developed Trip to Native Country (1947), a print series influenced by Chinese social-realist prints. From 1947 to 1948, he attended the Ichimokushumeetings at Onchi Koshiro's residence, and through his association transitioned from simplistic proletarian styles to an amalgamation of realistic representation and abstraction. In 1951, Kitaoka joined Shun'yokaiand later went on to study wood engraving at the L'Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts from 1955 to 1956. He further taught at the Minneapolis Museum School of Art, Pratt Graphic Arts Center, and held solo exhibitions in Tokyo, Russia, Taipei, and Beijing. In his later years, Kitaoka participated in international biennales in Tokyo, San Paulo, Lugano, and Ljubljana.