Chiharu Yakushigawa

Born in Shiga Prefecture in 1989, Chiharu Yakushigawa completed a Master’s degree in Fine Arts at the Graduate School of Art, Kyoto Seika University.

Using hand-made pigment paints based on the traditional nerikomi tempera technique, Yakushigawa applies paint directly with both hands and feet. Within her works, the boundaries between colors emerge as symbolic borders where the self and others—or differing entities—interact and come to accept one another.

Each series adopts a distinct mode of expression. In the “knock” series, Yakushigawa explores relationships between self and others in the age of social media, focusing on the act of knocking as a gesture made before entering another person’s space or territory. The artist is scheduled to undertake overseas projects and exhibitions this year, attracting increasing international attention.

Major solo exhibitions include “Knock Knock: Knocking on the Door of Boundaries” (The Triangle, Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art, 2025) and “Through the Veil, Across the Rub” (GINZA TSUTAYA BOOKS, Tokyo, 2025). In 2019, Yakushigawa received the Shiga Prefecture Next-Generation Culture Award.