Mori Yoshitoshi was a kimono fabric designer, stencil, and woodblock print artist born in Tokyo in 1898. From the age of fifteen, Mori studied painting and illustration techniques with artist Yamakawa Shuho and yuzen (textile) dyeing with Yamakawa Saiho. 

In 1923, he graduated from the Japanese-style painting division of the Kawabata Painting School. During this period, Mori was deeply influenced by Yanagi Soetsu (under whom he studied stencil-dyeing), Serizawa Keisuke, and later the Mingei folk art movement from 1942. He further joined the Kokugakai organization in 1949. Although Mori spent much of his early career working with textiles, during the late 1950s, he began to produce expansive prints on subjects of Kabuki theatre, Japanese festivals, and traditional stories. 

In 1955 he transitioned to hanga, reworking with stencils and woodblocks, and became a member of the Banga-in organization. In terms of subject matter, Mori depicted workers performing traditional tasks, festivals, folk art, and Buddhist iconography. His stylistic representation, too, was deeply influenced by the Mingei art movement. Over the next thirty years, Mori worked as a designer and dyer of kimono fabrics until 1982 when he joined Nihon Hanga Kyokai. From 1982 until his death a decade later, Mori Yoshitoshi was represented in numerous international competitions, including the Ljubljana, Barcelona, and Tokyo biennales. He passed away in 1992 at the age of ninety-two.