Raised in a landscape surrounded by mountains and rivers, it was natural for me to pick up fallen branches and scraps of wood and turn them into something. That act itself was my play.

I was more absorbed in the time of making than in completing anything. Without meaning or purpose, I simply moved my hands, following an impulse rising from within.

For me, Shihakushi is a sensation that exists before it becomes language—an atmosphere that emerges in the in-between of light and shadow.

The shadow cast on a wall by morning light.
The stillness after the wind has passed.
The emptiness that appears only when one suddenly stops.

These things clearly exist, yet the moment they are named, they begin to slip away.

I try to gather such elusive presences into small sculptural forms.

Using familiar materials such as paper, wood, and brass, I build landscapes through delicate, layered constructions.

These landscapes are not specific places, but something closer to memory, or dream, or fragments of an untold story.

This is why I use the form of a box in my work.

A box is not meant to close off a world, but to gently hold the small presences that are easily overlooked.

Old clock cases and wooden boxes contain a quiet sediment of time. Within them, shadows form a kind of space that receives light.

I strip away color and work primarily with black and white.

White is not emptiness, but a field of potential where form has not yet taken shape.

A white that serves as the interval where light and shadow meet, and presence begins to emerge.

To continue looking at the poetry that dwells there.

That is what “Shihakushi” means to me, and it lies at the foundation of my practice.

Through my works, if I can offer even a small opportunity to notice the quiet light and presence embedded in everyday life, there would be no greater joy..

Biography

2013 – Began creating independently
Exhibited at department stores and art spaces across Kansai and Kanto

2023 – Opened a studio-gallery in Kyoto
2025 – Relocated base to Hyogo
Same year – Participated in “A Bookend That Stays With Me” at Ogaki Bookstore, Azabudai Hills / Held solo exhibition “Shihakushi” in Fukuoka
2026 – Preparing to open my Hyogo studio as a public-facing gallery

Latest Information

Instagram: @koki_art_000