EN / JP
ARTISTS
Yumi Tohyama
Born in Tokyo, Japan 1964
Familiar with the Bible since childhood, she studied Ancient Greek History at university. Those studies included the history and esthetic beauty of western calligraphy, she’s been working as a calligrapher ever since.
Tohyama’s grandfather was a classical Japanese poet, so in her, an interest developed in visualizing the “core” of Japanese words by means of a writing style within which her grandfather’s philosophy could also be preserved. She then began to learn oriental calligraphy.
At the age of 33, she created the Dual Letter, her unique style of writing that is the combination of English and Japanese of the same meaning -- in other words, East meets West. Since 1999, she’s exhibited artwork of the Dual Letter at the Gallery 360°. Recently her interest in the oldest writing system, cuneiform of the Sumerian and its Middle Eastern dead languages contemporaries has grown, but her ultimate pursuit is the visualization of the subtle nuance words have on their own.
Now Tohyama is working on her new concept, Non Dual Letter, and exploring its possibilities possibility of it.
Additionally, she has tapped into the healing effect of copying text by hand, and from that discovery, she created the Dubsar Scriporium in Hillside Library in Daikanyama, and is a visiting liberal arts lecturer in the process of handwriting.
