Portfolio

About Me.
Born in Japan and based in Nagoya, Shozo is an artist whose practice is rooted in traditional Japanese painting techniques while exploring the contemporary potential embedded within classical aesthetics.
Through his experience in reproducing nationally designated cultural properties, he developed a deep understanding of traditional materials such as mineral pigments, washi paper, and natural adhesives. Within these historical techniques, he discovered structural elements that resonate with contemporary art.
Rather than positioning digital and classical art as opposites, Shozo approaches them as parallel expressions of the present. Influenced by the expanding language of global digital art, he produces works that integrate Japanese visual structures into digital formats, while also incorporating digital sensibilities into traditional painting.
His practice moves fluidly between analog and digital realms, re-examining visual structure itself.
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Education
1961 Born in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan.
1980 Graduated from Seto Ceramic High School of Design, Aichi, Japan
1980 Joined Noritake Company Limited (formerly Nippon Toki)âšHand Painter
1993 Retired from Noritake Company Limited.
1993: Started working as a precious cultural property reproduction artist.
During this period, he started painting using Japanese painting techniques.
2005: Quit the job of cultural property reproduction.
Worked as a Japanese-style painter.
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1980幎 æç¥çç«ç¬æžçª¯æ¥é«çæè¡å°éæ ¡åæ¥
1980幎 ããªã¿ã±ã«ã³ãããŒãªãããïŒæ§æ¥æ¬é¶åšïŒå
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1993幎 æ ªåŒäŒç€Ÿããªã¿ã±ã«ã³ãããŒãªãããé瀟
1993幎 貎éæå財è€è£œç»å®¶ãšããŠæŽ»åãå§ããã
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UTSURA

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Symbols born from mythology have transformed as they traveled across time and place.
Cupid became Kewpie — popularized, made universal — and crossed the Pacific to take root in Japan.
A symbol that transcends cultural difference carries within it a kind of universality.
I take that symbol, Kewpie, and render it through the lens of Japanese painting.
Transforming the symbol once more, presenting it in a new way of seeing.
This is contemporary ukiyo-e.
As ukiyo-e once did, I place original brushwork paintings at the apex,
print editions through giclée and other means, and send them into the world widely.
What differs from Edo-period ukiyo-e is that here, the publisher and the painter are one.
Through this, I aim to cultivate a symbol that has traveled across time and place —
and re-establish it as IP.
That is UTSURA.
Works

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