Masako, born in Japan, spent a few years of her childhood in Hong Kong and her teenage period in the United States; after receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Michigan she went on to study jewellery at the Rietveld Academie in the Netherlands. Going back to Japan she taught at the Hiko Mizuno Jewellery College for several years, but then the 3-months-in-Japan-followed-by-3 months-in-Germany commute began. She eventually settled in Britain, spent some time in London teaching first at Middlesex University then at the City Literary Institute. Now she lives and works in a village just outside Reading where she enjoys nature and walking her beloved corgi with her husband.
The interest in all forms of visual language, i.e. letters, signs, and symbols, has remained a central and constant theme of her work. She also delights in taking whichever materials or techniques that come her way and making them her own – it is not unlike the process of adapting to a new country.
