About My Practice

Based between Canada and Japan, I create multimedia art using VR, ceramics, painting, installation, and other media.

My current work centers on Jōmon culture, through which I work as an artist, researcher, and storyteller. Drawing on perspectives from folklore, archaeology, anthropology, and other fields, I research the Jōmon period and reconstruct its ways of life and worldview through Jōmon art.

I engage in dialogue and collaboration with experts and Indigenous peoples, learning from their knowledge, experiences, and perspectives as I explore the worldview and spirituality of the Jōmon. Through my artwork and talks, I value creating spaces for mutual learning and dialogue, rather than simply communicating one-sidedly. Together, we explore what we can learn from the past and how it might shape the future.

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Mandala and My Encounter with My Teacher

In 2015, I met Rev. Taiko Yamazaki, a Shingon Buddhist master and Professor Emeritus of Shuchiin University. Under his guidance and supervision, I began a five-year process of creating mandalas—visual representations of the kokoro, the inner essence of the human being.

Through spending many days creating together with my teacher, I came to understand the importance of bringing together intuition and reason, sensitivity and logic, as expressed in the Esoteric Buddhist concept of Ryōbu Funi—the unity of the two mandalic realms.

The five years I spent creating mandalas under his guidance have become an important foundation for both my life and my artistic practice.

“By studying the past, we come to understand the present and discover the new; this is what makes a teacher.”

This teaching has deeply influenced my approach to art: rather than simply recreating the past, I seek to look through the past toward the present and create something new.

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Reconstructing the Memory of Jōmon

When exploring the past, I value both intuition and knowledge. Through creating Jōmon pottery and dogū figurines, I have experienced a sense of connection with memories and knowledge carried across thousands of years.

I research Jōmon culture, work with my hands to create, and then examine what I sense and discover through the perspectives and knowledge of different fields. Through this process, I transform memories of the distant past into new forms of contemporary Jōmon art.

What emerges from this exploration is a way of seeing in which nature is valued, what we receive from the world is met with gratitude, and life is understood as something we share with others. It also reminds us that we are not separate from nature or the world, but are ourselves part of the larger whole.

Rather than leaving the knowledge inherited from our ancestors in the past, I seek to reinterpret it from a contemporary perspective and carry it forward to future generations. Through art, I hope to awaken these distant memories and connect them to the future.

I also value dialogue with people from different cultural backgrounds. By encountering different perspectives and ways of knowing, I hope to discover new possibilities together and create a space where cultures can learn from one another.