Eriko Notsu

Eriko Notsu (born 1989, Shimane Prefecture, Japan) is a young Japanese contemporary printmaker working in etching combined with hand-colouring, currently still based in her birth prefecture of Shimane in western Japan. The CWAJ catalogue records her training as 'self-taught' (独学), placing her among the small but growing cohort of contemporary Japanese printmakers who have come to the medium through self-directed practice rather than through formal art-university training.

Her 2025 etching with hand-colouring 'MIMI chan 2' (50 × 42 cm), exhibited at the 68th CWAJ Print Show 2025, exemplifies the visual register of her practice: a medium-format vertical intaglio print with the affectionate Japanese-language title 'MIMI chan 2' (where 'chan' is the diminutive Japanese honorific used for children, pets, or affectionate familiarity). The numbered '2' suffix suggests an ongoing 'MIMI' series; the subject — given the affectionate naming — is likely a beloved animal, child, or invented character treated as a recurring portrait subject. The hand-colouring on top of the etched plate produces the warm-toned chromatic surface that pure black-line etching cannot achieve.

The self-taught training pathway places Notsu among the increasing number of contemporary Japanese printmakers who have come to printmaking through self-directed engagement rather than through the formal Tokyo-Kyoto art-university system. The Shimane Prefecture base — in western Japan, far from the Tokyo-Kyoto axis that dominates the principal Japanese print circuits — reinforces the sense of an independent regional practice.

The combination of self-taught training, regional base in Shimane, and the affectionate-and-narrative subject vocabulary suggests a practice closer to graphic-novel illustration or contemporary picture-book aesthetics than to the more formal academic-print register of Tokyo CWAJ artists. The hand-coloured etching technique — etching plates as the line foundation, with watercolour or pigment hand-applied after printing — has been historically associated with intimate, narrative, character-driven printmaking, and continues to be a viable contemporary practice for printmakers working in this register.

At 36 years old, Notsu is in the middle of the young-printmaker cohort active in the 2025 CWAJ catalogue. Her catalogue selection (Print No. 115) marks her early-mid-career consolidation within the principal Japanese print showcase. Beyond the CWAJ catalogue entry, biographical detail and exhibition history are not currently surfaced through public-facing online channels.

Within the contemporary Japanese print scene Notsu represents the regional self-taught cohort whose practices grow alongside the formally trained Tokyo-Kyoto cohort, contributing to the geographic and pedagogical pluralism of contemporary Japanese printmaking.