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Yamaoka Kaoru (1921-1986) was born the third and youngest daughter into a family of confectionery manufacturers in Aichi Prefecture. In 1946, after graduating with a degree in economics from Tokyo Kasei Gakuin (Tokyo Women's University), she married a medical doctor and later moved to Shinichi (Hiroshima Prefecture). In March 1952, she co-founded an amateur photographers club for women called Noko-Club, and served as the club's first president. Over the next few decades Yamaoka Kaoru participated in numerous photographic salons and exhibitions and won several prizes. Her career was cut short in 1972 when she contracted an eye disease. She was nearly blind for the final fourteen years of her life. She died in 1986 at the age of 65.