The guiding principle of my work is to bring elements of the traditional culture of my own country Japan into the culture, craft and lifestyle of my adopted country Australia.  Long before the images of “Memoirs of a Geisha” swept through the West, my work was animated by a sense of duality – the old within the new, the face behind the mask, things immediate yet timeless, mirror emotions and images. These concepts inform every aspect of my work – as a designer, craftsman, and creator of beautiful things.

I came to Brisbane as an international student and later I have graduated  from Bachelor of Arts in Interior Design from Queensland College of Art  and  finished  Graduate Diploma in Interior Design from Queensland University of Technology.

In recent years, I have been  exhibiting  my furniture for the major international design exhibitions such as 100% Design Tokyo, 100% Design London and Seoul Design Week ;and designing in a number of dimensions – working with paper in creating greeting cards, Small Products, creating fashion accessories  and temporary  public art installation with Hiroakai Eba.
One of my furniture piece has recently  selected by the Clarence Prize 2009 in Hobart.

I enjoy any opportunity to bring opposites and sensations together in a single work of art in ways that are surprising and often startling. Vivid colours, angles, and the asymmetrical shapes of Nature highlight the basic functionality and purpose of each of my pieces. Though carefully considered and executed, my works are playful and tease new connections in the eye of the viewer.  I am happiest when people smile when they first see my work.

Living in Australia has helped me see and envisage new colours and shapes. It is my wish to see this fusion of cultures, ideas and images as the new visual vocabulary of Australia and my artwork represents another stage of this emerging process.

These are some of the characteristics that inform my work, things which are recognized by people who know it:

·    The antique/familiar alongside the new/unusual;
·    A fusion of elements from both East and West;
·    Spare and uncluttered Minimalist-influenced designs;
·    Evocation of Zen meditative qualities;
·    Simplicity;
·    Practicality;
·    Multi-purpose functionality;
·    Presentation which appeals to the senses;
·    Dynamic lines and presence;
·    Interior sense of humour, playfulness, joy, goodwill;
·    Organic forms derived from Nature;
·    A contemporary feel, embedded in a sense of timelessness

Many of these things are bound up in my own native culture. Coming from a Japanese background, I feel myself moving between the twin polarities of Japanese culture, the austere beauty of ancient Japanese tradition (think of the ceremonies associated with Shinto and Buddhist temples) alongside the jarring and dazzling sights and sounds of the contemporary world (think of the Shibuya district of Tokyo).

Here in Brisbane, which has been my base for nearly 15 years, I see similar qualities in urban design, particularly in our appreciation of the natural world. Because we live in such semi-tropical beauty and experience the intense sunshine, we try to bring the natural world into our homes, by means of creating indoor gardens, with plants and glass surfaces that enable us to feel at one with Nature. This celebration of the natural world is at the core of my own thinking about design, whether I am contemplating making furniture, public art, gardens, craftwork, or even in my cuisine.