I was appointed director of Toyama Glass Art Museum on April 1, 2022.
For 28 years from April 1992 to March 2020, I worked for Suntory Museum of Art in Tokyo and was busy planning and implementing exhibitions focusing on glass. With what I learned then and the networks with museums in and outside Japan, I moved to Toyama at the end of March 2020 and served as deputy director under SHIBUYA Ryoji, director of the museum at the time, for two years. I have been a great fan of the Toyama Glass Art Museum personally as I love glass so much.
Toyama as “Glass Art City, Toyama” over the past 30 years has set three policies: nurturing human resources, promotion of industrialization of glass and promotion of art. Having three full-fledged facilities as bases—Toyama Institute of Glass Art, Toyama Glass Studio and Toyama Glass Art Museum—Toyama is one of the unique cities in the world that promote endeavors related to glass. Since its opening in 2015, Toyama Glass Art Museum has held more than 30 exhibitions and the number of visitors exceeded 1.1 million (as of the end of 2021).
For the last two years, the visitors’ impressions that I have heard and seen the most at the museum were “it’s not like glass!” Glass is considered transparent, fragile and something that is blown to be made—it is an image of glass everyone has, but contemporary glass art is contrary to such preconceptions in a good way. Facing the material of glass with sincerity, facing it from different directions and coming up with various approaches will generate a diversity of expressions while potential in this material will be brought out more. In recent years, not a few works are created in the context of contemporary art. It is precisely like the situation of contemporary human society where “diversity” has become the keyword.
Staff of Toyama Glass Art Museum will make every effort to introduce diversified glass art around the world so that they will be enjoyed by many people. As every person is different and attractive, I hope that the viewer will be able to find a work that they like among glass artworks that are all different and rich in expression. Through these activities, I would like to make our city disseminate glass-related subjects to places in and outside Japan. We hope to live up to people’s expectations of “speaking of glass, it is Toyama.” Please look forward to it.
Profile of the museum director:
1967 Born in Tokyo
1992 Completed a master’s degree in aesthetics and art history, philosophy major, Graduate School of Letters, Keio University Graduate School.
1992 Started to work for Suntory Museum of Art
She planned many exhibitions of glass including Émile Gallé and Satsuma kiriko (cut glass).
2009 Awarded the Academic Prize of Western Art Foundation Prize and the 30th Japonism Society Award for holding “Gallé and Japonism” exhibition in 2008.
2010~March 2020 Curator in Chief for Suntory Museum of Art
From April 2020 Deputy Director, Toyama Glass Art Museum
From April 2022 Director, Toyama Glass Art Museum
Chair of ICOM Glass
Board of Association for Glass Art Studies, Japan.
Her books include Japanology Collection, kiriko, Kadokawa K.K.; The Concise History of World Glass supervised by Nakayama Kimio, Bijutsu Shuppan-sha (co-authored); Emile Gallé’s Glass, KAWADE Mook, edit. Yamane Ikunobu, Kawade Shobo Shinsha (co-authored).