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Urushi Lacquer Artist Reflecting Memory and Refuge
Saki Moriyama
Photo by Takeru Koroda
Photo by Kana Shimizu
Saki Moriyama
Base: Kyoto, Japan
Based in Kyoto, she creates layered and polished urushi surfaces that evoke memory, imagined realms, and quiet refuge. M.F.A. in Urushi Lacquering, Kyoto City University of Arts, 2015. Presented at Collect Art Fair, London, and Fine Art Asia, Hong Kong.
Discover the Artist
About
Career
Born in New York in 1988 and based in Kyoto, Saki Moriyama is a Japanese urushi lacquer artist. She graduated from Kyoto City University of Arts with a specialization in urushi lacquering in 2012 and completed her master’s degree in the same field at the university’s Graduate School of Arts in 2015. Continuing her study of the material, she completed the Advanced Urushi Course at the Kyoto Municipal Institute of Industrial Technology and Culture in 2025.
Founded in 1880 as Japan’s oldest public art university, Kyoto City University of Arts offers rigorous training that brings traditional urushi techniques into dialogue with the history, material science, and contemporary possibilities of the medium. Moriyama has also taught traditional kintsugi workshops in Japan, sharing the technical knowledge that underpins her practice.
Her work centers on the gradual accumulation and meticulous polishing of urushi. As successive layers are refined, patterns concealed within the surface slowly emerge. Moriyama brings ideas of time, space, and memory into these shifting planes, creating works that invite viewers to encounter traces of images held within their own recollections.
Her recent series draws upon classical East Asian conceptions of imagined realms. These include kochū-ten, a paradise discovered within a small vessel, and tōgen-kyō, the secluded utopia described in the tale of Peach Blossom Spring. Through these motifs, Moriyama explores how a work of art—and the space it contains—might offer a place of stillness and quiet refuge from everyday life.
Moriyama received the Excellence Award at TERRADA ART AWARD 2015 (Miyake Mai Prize) and the Japan Urushi Art Association Scholarship Award in 2025. Her work has been presented internationally at venues including Collect Art Fair at Somerset House in London and Fine Art Asia in Hong Kong. Her works are held in the public collections of Chishima Real Estate and DMG MORI.
Solo Exhibitions
2025 Theoria of the Mirror, Gion Konishi, Kyoto
2023 Saki Moriyama Solo Exhibition, THE THOUSAND KYOTO, Kyoto
2021 Drift and Skin, kumagusuku SAS, Kyoto
2016 Overlooking Mountains, T-Art Gallery, Tokyo
2015 Keshiki wo Toraeru, gallery 301, Hyogo
2014 Near and Far — Spinning Paintings, gallery 301 due, Hyogo
2013 The View From Here, gallery 301, Hyogo
2012 Tamarime, gallery 301 due, Hyogo
Group Exhibitions
2026 The Texture of Dreams, ROD GALLERY, Tokyo
2026 From Here to Eternity: The Current Practices of the TERRADA ART AWARD 2015 Laureates, WHAT CAFE, Tokyo
2025 Hyper Adaptation II, Daihonzan Myōkenji Temple, Kyoto
