Tsugeno Harue

Tsugeno Harue is a Japanese artist who brings an unusual musical sensibility to the art of water-based woodblock printing. Trained as a pianist at the Toho Gakuen University School of Music, she has for many years pursued mokuhanga alongside her ongoing musical career, developing a distinctive practice that is imbued with the rhythmic and tonal qualities of her musical background.

After completing her piano studies at Toho Gakuen University, one of Japan's most prestigious conservatories, Tsugeno studied printmaking under the guidance of four printmakers - Shigeyuki Kimura, Atsuko Suzuki, Hidemitsu Takagaki, and Hiroko Furuya. This apprenticeship model, rooted in the traditional Japanese approach to artistic training, gave her a thorough grounding in the technical subtleties of water-based woodblock printing on washi paper.

Her artistic practice draws deeply on the intersection of music and visual art. A title such as "Nocturne in Moonlight" evokes both the quiet luminosity of a night scene and the reflective character of a nocturne in the piano repertoire. Her prints exhibit a lyrical quality and sensitivity to tonal gradation that speak to her trained ear for harmony and dynamics.

Tsugeno works primarily in water-based woodblock printing on Japanese washi paper, a medium that rewards patience and precision in equal measure. The translucent quality of water-based pigments on handmade paper gives her prints a luminous, almost ethereal quality that complements her contemplative subject matter.

Her exhibition career spans more than a decade of active showing. She held solo exhibitions at Gallery Goto in Tokyo in 2014 and 2017 and at Gallery Tsubaki GT2 in Tokyo in 2019 and 2021, following a two-person show at Gallery Goto in 2011. A further solo exhibition was mounted at Gallery Natsuka in Tokyo in October 2024.

Tsugeno has received recognition in competitive exhibitions, including the Encouragement Prize at the South Alps Miniature Print Exhibition in 2013 and selection for the 23rd Kanuma City Kawakami Sumio Museum of Art Woodblock Print Grand Prize exhibition in 2017. In 2023, her work "Nocturne in Moonlight" received the Minoru Fujimori Prize at the Awagami International Miniature Print Exhibition.

Her works are held in the collections of the Minami-Alps City Shunsen Art Museum in Yamanashi Prefecture and the Awagami (Awa Washi) Traditional Paper Industry Hall in Tokushima Prefecture.