Biography
Yasuyuki Sato is a Japanese mokuhanga practitioner and arts administrator who serves as the Director of MI-LAB (Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory) and Chair of the International Mokuhanga Association (IMA) Japan Board. He is one of the key organizational figures in the international mokuhanga community, responsible for sustaining and expanding the institutional infrastructure that supports water-based woodblock printmaking worldwide.
As MI-LAB Director, Sato continued the artist-in-residence programs established by the late Keiko Kadota, who founded MI-LAB in 2004 as a platform for international artists to study traditional mokuhanga techniques in Japan under master carvers and printers. After Kadota's death in 2017, Sato took on the responsibility of maintaining MI-LAB's mission of fostering cross-cultural exchange through mokuhanga education. In 2024, he led the relocation of the MI-LAB program from its original base to Echizen in Fukui Prefecture, a region with a centuries-long tradition of washi papermaking that provides a natural connection to the materials of mokuhanga.
Sato also serves as the Head Office Director of the IMA and chairs the Center for the Science of Human Endeavor (CfSHE), the organizational body that hosts MI-LAB. His work has been instrumental in connecting the traditional craft communities of Japan with the growing international network of contemporary mokuhanga practitioners through conferences, residencies, and educational programs.
Key Facts
- Nationality
- 🇯🇵Japan
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
Frequently Asked Questions
Yasuyuki Sato is a Japanese mokuhanga practitioner and arts administrator who serves as the Director of MI-LAB (Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory) and Chair of the International Mokuhanga Association (IMA) Japan Board. He is one of the key organizational figures in the international mokuhanga community, responsible for sustaining and expanding the institutional infrastructure that supports water-based woodblock printmaking worldwide.
Yasuyuki Sato'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.
Yasuyuki Sato 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.