Yamamoto Kanae was born into an impoverished samurai family in Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture, in 1882. At the age of ten, he entered into a five-year apprenticeship with Sakurai Kyoun in which he learned to reproduce Western-style illustrations through wood engraving. In 1902, he moved to Tokyo to study Western-style painting with Nagahara Kotaru at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. 

Based on his observations of prints published in the European journals Jugend and Pan, Yamamoto carved the very first sosaku hanga print in Japan. Fisherman (1904) was published by Yamamoto's friend Ishii Hakutei in the magazine Myojo, with an accompanying article explaining the use of woodblock printing for creative purposes, thereby setting the stage for the creative print movement. Upon graduating in 1906, Yamamoto co-founded the magazine Hosun and Tokyo Print Club a year later in addition to co-publishing sets of actor prints entitled Sketches of Stage Figures. 

Despite his recent success, however, he wished to further his education. In 1912, Yamamoto departed for Paris, where he studied copper-plate etching at the École Des Beaux-Arts. Although he socialized with other resident Japanese artists, Yamamoto did not participate in additional classes; rather, he isolated himself working in his room and occasionally frequenting museums such as the Louvre. With the onset of WWI, he was forced to return to Japan by way of the Trans-Siberian Railway in 1916. Immediately upon his return, Yamamoto began exhibiting oil paintings at Inten in 1917. He went on to co-found the Nihon Sosaku Hanga Kyokaiwith Oda Kazuma, Tobari Kogan, and Terasaki Takeo in 1918 and held its first exhibition the following year. That same year, Yamamoto founded the Children's Free Drawing Movement and, in 1919, the Farmer's Art Movement. Although not active as a woodblock artist after 1920, he continued to be a strong advocate of sosaku hanga throughout his life. He became a founding member of Shun'yokai in 1922 and later went on to co-found the Nihon Hanga Kyokai in 1931, serving as vice-president until 1942.