Mokutani Yoshiaki

Mokutani Yoshiaki (杢谷圭章, b. 1980, Shizuoka Prefecture) is a Japanese printmaker working principally in copperplate intaglio — etching with sustained attention to corrosion processes that yield vibrant colour palettes and sharp incised lines. He earned a B.A. from Meiji University's Faculty of Fine Arts and Design in 2003, then completed his graduate studies in Printmaking at Musashino Art University Graduate School of Fine Arts in 2005. Since graduation he has maintained an active studio practice based in the Tokyo region, with regular exhibition output and participation in major international intaglio festivals.

Mokutani's mature etching practice reconstructs fragmented imagery through layered printing methods that retain visible evidence of the corrosion-bath process — passages of irregular oxidation, deliberate plate-tone variation, and over-etched line are part of his vocabulary. The technical rigor of his approach has placed him within the principal Japanese intaglio printing community of his generation, alongside contemporaries Daisuke Abe, Litzco Yamamiya, Hiroyuki Omori, and the Zabo House Print Studio cohort. His exhibitions span the major Tokyo-area print venues and have circulated through international intaglio festivals.

In 2019 he participated in the Fifth Mezzotint Festival at the Yekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts in Russia — one of the principal international showcases for the mezzotint technique — placing him within the international community of working intaglio printmakers across Russia, Japan, the United States, and Europe. Other major exhibitions include 'The Adventure of Fine Art Prints' at the Tamashin Museum of Art in Tokyo (2022) and 'Tokorozawa Art's Future' at the Tokorozawa Citizen Gallery (2023).

In 2020 he co-founded the ALABORA collective with two other Tokyo-area printmakers (Otsuka Satoshi and Kawagoe Kenta). The collective's inaugural exhibition 'ALABORA: The Traced Line' (隣り合う腕 / Adjacent Arms) at Yukobo Art Space in Tokyo (3-29 November 2020) presented the three artists' work in dialogue around the visual landscape and the formal-elemental decomposition of the seen scene. Mokutani's contribution to ALABORA — including the 2020 print 'The Traced Line: Adjacent Arms' (隣り合う片腕) — exemplifies his approach to 'unlock[ing] elements composing scenes before him, reducing them to fundamental formal elements like color and line to extract the experience of seeing.'

In 2023 he presented 'Ikeda Toshihiko + Mokutani Yoshiaki' at Clear Gallery Tokyo, a two-artist exhibition that paired his etching practice with Ikeda Toshihiko's complementary print work. The Clear Gallery exhibition documented Mokutani's continuing experimental approach to the corrosion process — multiple bath compositions, varied plate preparation methods, and layered printing techniques that build up dense chromatic surfaces through stacked transparent etching impressions.

Within the contemporary Japanese intaglio scene Mokutani is one of the more visible mid-career copperplate specialists. The combination of Meiji University foundation training, Musashino Art University graduate-level printmaking specialisation, ALABORA collective participation, and international mezzotint-festival circulation places him among the working Japanese intaglio printmakers whose practice extends the postwar Japanese tradition of corrosion-based printmaking through experimental colour and tonal techniques. His work is documented through Clear Gallery Tokyo, Tokyo Art Beat exhibition listings, the Yukobo Art Space programme, and his Instagram presence (@yoshiaki_mokutani).