I was born in a traditional family, with a “buke” ancestor, in Tokyo, Japan. I grew up in a traditional Japanese way, learning “sadō” (Japanese tea ceremony), “buyō” (traditional Japanese performing art), and “kadō” (the Japanese art of flower arrangement). I went to both art and classical music western tradition schools as a child. So for me, it was a very natural way of daily life, touching Japanese traditional culture and a European academic education. This is probably the root of my painting.

I first worked as a jewelry designer. I was in the biggest pearl company and I had such famous clients as Jim Jarmusch, Johnny Depp and many VIPs. I received an award in the International Pearl Design Contest but I also kept working on my painting.

There was a day when I finally decided to stop jewelry design and start a career as a painter. I worked with Tomato (http://www.tomato.co.uk), and Steve, Tomato’s manager, said to me after seeing my paintings that I “should choose a career as a painter.” So I became a part of the long 1,000-year history of communication of the arts by creating my own work.

I have been trying to express the inner face of human beings through my paintings and by creating a series of work called “Fantasy in the Tangle”, “Organic”, and “Confusion”. I have tried to continue my creation even though now showing them. The process has not stopped when I finish one work — the flow of the process shows me the next one. This aggregation is the totality of the artwork. The abstraction comes from communication to this world. It becomes a visual language

“Lines, Black and White”

I have been using “Lines, Black and White”. This hasn’t been often used in western painting but it is very familiar to me as a Japanese. We can express everything through “Lines, Black and White” — even the inner face of Japanese culture. It is the inevitability of culture and history that causes me to use it in abstract expression.

I continue to create work and communicate my feelings and continue this way over a long journey.