A dedicated disciple of Munakata Shiko and a brilliant sosaku hanga artist, Sasajima Kihei was born in the pottery town of Mashiko, Tochigi Prefecture in 1906. Kihei loved sketching as a child, although artistic opportunities in his rural hometown were scarce. After graduating from the Aoyama Normal School in 1927, he found an opportunity to take drawing courses at a teaching school in Tokyo. 

Sasajima became a schoolteacher and produced art in his spare time. Throughout the 1930s, he exhibited with Shun'yokai and Kokugakai, and, in 1935, attended an art course designed for teachers by Hiratsuka Un'ichi. Awe-inspired, Sasajima's passion for the arts deepened, and he continued to study oils, calligraphy and sketching as a personal hobby. 

A year later, Sasajima met Munakata Shiko, a rising star in the sosaku hanga movement, and became his student. Although he continued to teach, Sasajima's heart and soul yearned for the life of an artist, and in 1945 he finally quit his job to pursue his passion full-time. From 1948-1952, Sasajima joined the Nihon Hanga Kyokai and became a founding member of Banga-in in 1952. Six years later, he rejoined Nihon Hanga Kyokai before withdrawing again in 1960. Sasajima then joined the Nippankai organization and, from 1957 to 1966, was represented in the Tokyo Biennale as well as the Sao Paolo Biennale in 1967. 

In terms of vision, Sasajima wished to achieve the two-dimensional qualities of traditional calligraphy for his prints, emphasizing that scale (rather than depth) was more important. Stylistically, the majority of his works are monochromatic (only a select number of prints are colorized), utilizing lines longer and more brush-like than Hiratsuka's. The technique is a form of embossing by which damp paper is forced into the grooves of a woodblock and inked through tampons on a raised surface. The result is a clean, smooth, and controlled print finish. Some of Sasajima's finest works feature countryscapes and religious iconography.