Biography
Chie Kuroda (born 1983, Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese contemporary woodcut printmaker whose mature practice has been documented through the 68th CWAJ Print Show 2025. She trained at Musashino Art University, the Tokyo art university whose printmaking program has produced a substantial cohort of working contemporary Japanese woodcut and lithograph artists active in the 2010s and 2020s. She is currently based in Tokyo.
Her 2023 woodcut 'In Slumber and Whimsy' (まどろみ たわむれ, 2023, 64 × 83 cm) shown in the 68th CWAJ Print Show 2025 catalogue establishes the visual register of her practice: a substantial-scale woodcut on washi, with the Japanese title 'まどろみ たわむれ' translating roughly to 'doze and frolic' or 'slumber and play.' The combination of the dreamy 'まどろみ' (a half-asleep state, drowsiness) and the playful 'たわむれ' (frolic, jest) signals the contemplative-but-light register that contemporary Japanese woodcut tends to occupy when its subjects are interior or psychological rather than landscape.
Musashino Art University's printmaking faculty has been a primary transmission channel for traditional Japanese woodcut technique combined with contemporary subject matter. Recent printmakers trained there include Suzuki Tomoe (2011 correspondence), Kashiwagi Yuki (b. 1991), Kosaka Keiko (correspondence program), and others; Kuroda's training at the same institution places her within this cohort of Musashino-trained contemporary printmakers active in CWAJ.
The horizontal format of the 'In Slumber and Whimsy' print (64 × 83 cm in landscape orientation) is at the upper end of comfortable woodblock-cutting and registration practice; it suggests a composition that needs the wider-than-tall canvas to develop its narrative. The medium remains traditional Japanese mokuhanga rather than the imported European woodcut or wood-engraving traditions, although the precise technical characterisation (water-based ink versus oil-based, baren-rubbed versus pressed) is not specified in the catalogue entry.
Within the contemporary Japanese woodcut scene Kuroda represents the cohort of artists in their early forties who entered practice in the 2000s and 2010s and have been gradually consolidating their position within the principal showcase circuits. Her CWAJ Print Show 2025 selection (Print No. 083) is the principal verification of her current activity.
Beyond the CWAJ catalogue entry, biographical detail and exhibition history are not currently surfaced through public-facing online channels; a fuller picture of her practice would require further direct gallery and association directory research.
Key Facts
- Active Period
- 1983
- Nationality
- 🇯🇵Japan
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Works Indexed
- 1
Frequently Asked Questions
Chie Kuroda (born 1983, Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese contemporary woodcut printmaker whose mature practice has been documented through the 68th CWAJ Print Show 2025. She trained at Musashino Art University, the Tokyo art university whose printmaking program has produced a substantial cohort of working contemporary Japanese woodcut and lithograph artists active in the 2010s and 2020s. She is currently based in Tokyo.
Chie Kuroda was active born in 1983. They were associated with the Contemporary Mokuhanga movement.
Chie Kuroda'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.