Yuki Ideguchi

Yuki Ideguchi (出口雄樹, born 1986) is a Japanese painter who fuses nihonga (Japanese-style painting) with street art materials and contemporary sensibilities. Born in Fukuoka Prefecture, he earned both his BFA (2011) and MFA (2013) in Japanese Painting from Tokyo University of the Arts, one of Japan's most prestigious art institutions.

Ideguchi's technique is deliberately heterodox: he combines traditional nihonga materials such as mineral pigments and gold leaf with spray paint, acrylic, and newly developed synthetic pigments to achieve effects impossible within conventional Japanese painting. The resulting works pulse with the energy of urban graffiti while retaining the compositional sophistication and material richness of classical Japanese art.

His Re-Hokusai series channels the spirit of Katsushika Hokusai's manga—the legendary sketchbooks that documented every conceivable subject in energetic brushwork—through Ideguchi's own expressive line, inventive compositions, and wry humor. The series positions him as a contemporary heir to Hokusai's restless creative ambition, reinterpreting the master's motifs with spray cans and acrylics alongside traditional brushes.

In 2017, Ideguchi appeared in the British Museum's documentary film on Hokusai, and in 2019, he led a workshop on Japanese painting at the University of Chicago. He has received grants from the Mitsubishi Corporation Art Gate Program, the Asahi Shinbun Foundation, the Japan Foundation New York, and the Yoshino Gypsum Art Foundation. He has exhibited in solo and group shows internationally since 2008 and currently lives and works in Kyoto.