Biography
Asuka Tsutsumi is a Japanese multimedia artist whose practice centers on mokuhanga, the traditional water-based woodblock printing technique, which she combines with photography, painting, and video to create layered works that explore the vitality of the natural world. Based in the Nara region of Japan, Tsutsumi's prints are characterized by sophisticated technical detail, including very fine, thin carvings and signature organic shapes and lines that evoke the living forms of plants and botanical subjects.
Plants are fundamental to Tsutsumi's artistic vision. She draws continuous inspiration from their capacity for surprise and discovery, finding in their forms a source of colors, shapes, light, and vitality that informs every aspect of her printmaking. Her technique involves a distinctive layered process: she prints Japanese Awagami paper with inkjet printing, then prints Japanese Ganpi paper with woodcut rubbing, and finally pastes the printed Ganpi onto the Awagami using starch paste. This innovative combination of traditional mokuhanga methods with contemporary digital printing creates works of remarkable translucency and visual complexity.
In 2020, Tsutsumi encountered the Toma House in Nara city, an art space housed in the only remaining residence of a Kasuga Taisha Shinto priest family, built in the eighteenth century. This historic space became an important exhibition venue for her work, providing a setting where the dialogue between traditional Japanese architecture and her contemporary botanical prints could unfold naturally.
Tsutsumi has been an active participant in the international mokuhanga community. She exhibited at the Third International Mokuhanga Conference in Nara in 2021, where she gave demonstrations and lectures about her process, and at the Fifth International Mokuhanga Conference in Echizen in 2024, where her work was included in the juried Asia exhibition. Her engagement with mokuhanga conferences reflects a commitment to both preserving and innovating within the tradition of Japanese woodblock printing.
Key Facts
- Nationality
- 🇯🇵Japan
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Works Indexed
- 2
Frequently Asked Questions
Asuka Tsutsumi is a Japanese multimedia artist whose practice centers on mokuhanga, the traditional water-based woodblock printing technique, which she combines with photography, painting, and video to create layered works that explore the vitality of the natural world. Based in the Nara region of Japan, Tsutsumi's prints are characterized by sophisticated technical detail, including very fine, thin carvings and signature organic shapes and lines that evoke the living forms of plants and botanical subjects.
Asuka Tsutsumi's work was shaped by the Contemporary Mokuhanga tradition in Japanese woodblock printmaking. Contemporary Mokuhanga: Contemporary mokuhanga (literally "wood-block print") encompasses artists working from approximately 1970 to the present who continue or reinvent traditional Japanese woodblock printing techniques.
Asuka Tsutsumi is a contemporary printmaker working in the mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock) tradition. Their work contributes to the living tradition of Japanese woodblock printing. Prices for contemporary mokuhanga prints range from $100 for smaller works to $1,500 for major compositions. Most prints sell in the $180–$600 range. The global mokuhanga community has been growing, with increasing exhibition opportunities and collector interest. Contemporary mokuhanga represents an affordable entry point for collectors.
