Born in Tsu City, Mie Prefecture, Japan, and currently lives and works in Cologne and Berlin, Germany.
She studied Spanish at Osaka University of Foreign Studies (now the School of Foreign Studies, The University of Osaka), and graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Seville in Spain. From 1979 to 1983, she lived in Zurich, Switzerland. In 1983, she received a scholarship from Faber-Castell and the city of Nuremberg, which led her to stay in Nuremberg, Germany. In 1985, she moved to Cologne, and since 1996 she has been based in Berlin. From 1991 to 2015, she served as a professor at the Berlin University of the Arts. Since 2014, she has also been a professor at Joshibi University of Art and Design in Japan. Recent major solo exhibitions include:2019 “Our Planet: Earth & Stars” (The National Art Center, Tokyo, Japan), 2022 “More Light!” (Asian Art Museum, Germany), 2025 ”Mother Scape” (ALBERTINA, Austria), Sao Paulo Art Biennial (Pavilhao Ciccillo Matarazzo), 2026 Bangkok Art Biennale (Vietnam), International Art Exhibition TOKYO ATLAS (Tokyo).
She has received the Cologne Art Prize in 2014, and the Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize in 2019. Selected as a Person of Cultural Merit for 2025 by Japanese government.