Seien Shima was born to a family of artists in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture. They later relocated to southern Osaka City, where she grew up amid the customs one of the city’s pleasure quarters. She learned the basics of painting from her father, a painter, and elder brother, a designer, and was influenced by Tsunetomi Kitano (1880–1947), known in Osaka art circles for his paintings of beautiful women (bijinga), with whom she worked. After exhibiting multiple pieces at a variety of shows, she was selected to present her work at the Ministry of Education’s Bunten Exhibition for the first time in 1912 at the age of 20. There, she attracted much attention, and, together with Shōen Uemura (1875–1949) of Kyoto and Shōen Ikeda (1886–1917) of Tokyo – both of whom were also prominent women artists – came to be known as the “three ‘en’ of the three cities”. This served as the impetus for a rapid increase of women artists in the Osaka art world.

Matsuri no yoso’oi [Dressing Up for a Festival], which was selected for the Bunten exhibition in 1913, depicts a group of lavishly attired girls and a more simply dressed girl who stands a little apart from them, staring forlornly. The theme of this work is that of the realities of social inequality and the psychology of the children who are born from this disparity.
In 1916, together with the women artists Chigusa Kitani (1895–1947), Kōen Okamoto (1895–?) and Kayō Matsumoto (1893–?), S. Shima formed the Onna Yonin Kai (Four Woman Society). Their inaugural exhibition was held in Osaka, at which the four artists exhibited works based on the writings of the Edo period author Saikaku Ihara, which garnered significant interest. However, with the themes of these works extending to immoral and socially offensive issues such as brothel districts, lechery, infidelity and love suicides (shinjū), a public movement to discourage women artists from depicting such themes developed in response.

In 1920, S. Shima married an employee of the Yokohama Specie Bank. Although he was an art world outsider, he was understanding of her intention to continue painting. When his overseas appointments continued in Shanghai, Bombay and Dalian, she left Osaka to accompany him. Consequently, the manners and customs of various foreign countries were incorporated into her works.
S. Shima painted many images of women, but her uniqueness lay in the fact that she did not merely paint beauties, but instead tackled themes that deeply probe issues of women’s agency. For example, in Mudai (Untitled; 1918) she depicts herself with a birthmark (in fact, the artist did not have a birthmark), which serves to express “the feelings of a woman who curses her fate and her society”. Kyara no kaori (Eaglewood Fragrance; 1920), which takes the sex workers of Kyoto’s Shimabara district as its subject, depicts an aging prostitute with grotesque colours and shapes that convey a sense of “heartbreaking sensuality”. The work’s morally decadent mood leaves a strong impression, but at the same time, it was also swamped with criticisms for its vulgarity and unpleasantness.

S. Shima’s energetic output inspired women artists in the Osaka art world, resulting in a movement among the wives and daughters of good families to become artists and present their own works at public exhibition. Additionally, many of her own students went on to become artists in their own right.