Born in 1866 in Higashi-Sengoku-Baba, Kagoshima castle town, Satsuma Province, as the eldest son of Satsuma samurai Kuroda Kiyokane. He was later adopted by his uncle, Viscount Kuroda Kiyotsuna. In 1884, aged 18, he went to France to study law, but met the Academist painter Raphaël Collin in Paris and resolved to become a painter. Entering Collin's private school, he learned the bright colors and realistic depiction of the Plein-air school. In 1893, after nine years in France, he returned home and that year produced his representative work 'Morning Toilette.' In 1896, when the Tokyo School of Fine Arts established a Western Painting Department, he was appointed its senior professor with Kume Keiichiro, and trained painters who would carry modern Japanese Western painting. In the same year he founded the art group 'Hakubakai' (White Horse Society), establishing the Plein-air style in Japan. 'By the Lake' (1897), depicting his wife Teruko by the shore of Lake Ashi in Hakone, was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1999 as a representative work of modern Japanese painting. In 1910 he became a member of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts; in 1920 he was appointed a member of the House of Peers as a viscount. He died in Tokyo in 1924, aged 58.

A warm, sincere man of Satsuma samurai stock. Combining refined French manners with traditional Japanese etiquette, he was beloved by later painters as 'Kuroda-sensei.' Though an artist, he inherited his uncle Kiyotsuna's peerage and served as a member of the House of Peers. His wife Teruko was a former geisha who became his legal wife and is known as the model of 'By the Lake.'

As the 'Father of Japanese Modern Western Painting,' Kuroda was the greatest contributor in systematically introducing the technique and aesthetic of Western oil painting to Japan. His representative works 'By the Lake,' 'Reading,' and 'Wisdom, Impression, Sentiment' (all Important Cultural Properties) are placed in textbooks as classics of modern Japanese art. The Kuroda Memorial Hall adjacent to the Tokyo National Museum (the former Viscount Kuroda residence) was established by his will and permanently displays his representative works.