Born 1931 in Hiroshima Prefecture, Yoshihara graduated from Tennoji High School in Osaka, and then learned with the leader of the Gutai group, Jiro Yoshihara. He participated in Gutai during 1954 but left the movement a year later so join the “Demokrato Artists Association” with Q Ei, Shigeru Izumi and others. During this time, Yoshihara started to produce prints. He joined the Japan Print Association in 1959 (he left the group in 1969).

Yoshihara submitted his works to a variety of national and international exhibitions such as the Sao Paolo Biennale and the Tokyo International Print Biennale of 1968, where he was awarded the Award of the Minster of Education. In 1969, he won the Bridgestone Museum Award at the Japan Art Exhibition, and received the Geijutsu Sensho Award the following year. Together with other print artists of his generation such as Masuo Ikeda and Ay-O, Yoshihara has left a lasting impact on postwar Japanese printmaking.