Kawashima, a painter, sculptor and print-maker, has lived and worked in New York City since 1963. Born in Takamatsu City on Shikoku, he studied at Musashino Art School in Tokyo from 1953-56 and then taught at Yoyogi Art School in Tokyo from 1955 to 1958. After moving to New York he attended the Art Students League. His work has been shown continuously in one-man shows in both the United States and in Japan. In Tokyo his work has been shown at the Nantenshi Gallery. In 1965 he was included in the exhibition Japanese Artists in Europe and America at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. In 1969 he was represented in The Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture at the Krannert Art Museum in Urbana, Illinois and in the 9th Contemporary Art Exhibition of Japan at the Tokyo Municipal Museum. In 1973 he was in the New Acquisitions show at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, as well as in the exhibition Japanese Artists in America at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. The following are some of the collections in which his work is represented: The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Larry Aldrich Museum, Connecticut; Chrysler Art Museum, Massachusetts; The Chase Manhattan Collection, Chase Manhattan Bank, New York; Spelman College, Atlanta; Kagawa Prefecture Cultural Museum, Takamatsu, Japan; National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.

For a similar painting by Kawashima dated 1964 in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, see The New Japanese Painting and Sculpture (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1966), pp. 76-66.