b. 1913 Dairen, Manchuria

A calligrapher, painter, and printmaker, Shinoda Toko is an artist whose work is found in famous public and private collections of Japanese art the world over. In Japan, her largest work, a twenty-eight meter long mural, is housed in the six-hundred year old Zojoji temple; her most famous painting graces a dining room in the new Imperial Palace. On a more accessible level, Tokyoites can emjoy her large painting on gold at the Tokyo American Club or her imposing two-panel screen in the dining room of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club. Various hotels and corporations have her compositions as the center of their décor.

Shinoda’s paintings are admired by everyone who appreciates her straight forward, powerful brush strokes. A two-year stay in New York in the 1950s introduced Shinoda to the abstract expressionists who influenced Shinoda to break free of tightly controlled calligraphy and instead use expansive, dynamic brush strokes.

Museum collections:
Art Institute of Chicago
Brooklyn Museum
Cincinnati Art Museum
Tokyo National Museum of Art
Guggenheim Museum of New York
Rockefeller Collection