Bio.

Satoko Saito was born in Japan in 1955 and graduated from Musashino Art University. She began her career in editorial design and advertising production.
From 1999 to 2003, she lived in Taiwan due to her husband’s work. During this time, she met a Chinese master of traditional paper-cutting, whose teachings deeply shaped her artistic path.
In 2009, she held her first solo exhibition of Chinese paper-cut works in Yokohama. Starting in 2013, she expanded her practice by creating collage pieces that combine paper and fabric, enriching her expressive language.
Between 2017 and 2022, she participated in several solo and group exhibitions in Taiwan, Korea, and Tokyo, including a solo exhibition in Ikebukuro, Tokyo (2017) and a group exhibition in Ginza, Tokyo (2021).



Artistic Statement.

Satoko Saito’s works arise from what touches her in daily life: images, sounds, experiences and memories that accumulate within her like silent files waiting to resurface. To this she adds something more intangible, a kind of inspiration she feels descending from above, as if it were an unexpected gift. For this reason the forms often appear without conscious intention. They simply happen, as though carried by a gentle force.

Saito does not favor artworks that evoke discomfort, sadness or oppressive feelings. Instead, she seeks to offer a sense of lightness, delicacy and quiet brightness. Through the transparency of the washi, the movement of the fibers and the layered colors, she hopes to convey a feeling of ease and naturalness. Her work invites the viewer to pause for a moment and receive a touch of tenderness or serenity.

Each series emerges from an inner reflection: the hidden strength that every person carries within; the deep relationship between humans and nature; the freedom of the body expressed through dance; the connection between our individual light and the vastness of the universe. In all her works, a simple and powerful message appears: to live more gently, to let things flow, and to remember that beauty can arise even from the humblest gestures, such as water, glue and a sheet of paper.




About the Technique.

Satoko Saito’s work is created through a personal technique that combines traditional handmade Japanese paper with a layered process of gluing and abrasion. From a distance her pieces may resemble watercolor paintings, but up close the surface reveals reliefs, textures and the living presence of the paper fibers. Saito uses extremely thin sheets of washi in vivid, transparent colors that, when layered, allow the tones beneath to show through, creating luminous and vibrant gradations.

The process is entirely manual. After preparing the wooden panel or canvas with multiple coats of primer that must dry thoroughly, the artist applies glue only to the areas where she intends to “paint” with paper. She then places the washi onto the glued surface and lets it dry completely. Next she pours water over the work and rubs it with a tawashi, the traditional Japanese brush made of palm fibers. This action brings out the natural direction of the fibers, generating dynamic movements and unexpected forms. The process is repeated many times: glue, paper, water, abrasion, drying, and then glue again.

Saito never makes preliminary sketches. She prefers to rely on the energy of the gesture, the immediacy of intuition and the power of chance. It is the glue, the paper and the water that guide the emergence of the image. The result is a work in which the fibers seem to dance across the surface, following an organic rhythm that cannot be entirely controlled but only accompanied.