Profile

Uekusa Toun (Founder)

　　1944　Born in Yokohama, Japan

　1954　At the age of ten, entered the family woodcarving business.

　1963　Centered in Yokohama, engaged in the business of interior and exterior architectural ornamentation and decoration, while pouring all his strength into the preservation and transmission of traditional Japanese woodcarving techniques.
　　　　　　

　1975 With the aging of the woodcarving community and the changing times, opportunities for woodcarvers to employ their skills gradually began to disappear. So at the age of forty, he established himself as a woodcarving artist independent from his family business.
　　　　　

　1984　Opened the Uekusa Toun School of Woodcarving. With the central theme of creating not objects of worship, but buddhist figures capable of a human dialogue, he created his own style of woodcarving and named his works Mandala Figures (Mandara Ningyou). This theme links together all of his current and past works.

　1987　Assumed the position of lecturer at the Japanese Arts Center

　1987　3/11〜3/15　Uekusa Toun Exhibition--Ginza Gallery Subakksu, Tokyo

　1990　4/17〜4/22　Uekusa Toun Exhibition--Ginza Gallery Subakksu, Tokyo

　1991　"Hand of Buddha" chosen for the Yokohama Art Exhibit, but not entered due to differences in opinion.

　1991　3/28〜4/2　Uekusa Toun Exhibition--Kamakura Kamishimo Gallery, kamakura

　1995　2/24〜2/26　Uekusa Toun Exhibition--Hotel Takanawa, Tokyo

　1996　10/17〜10/25　Uekusa Toun Exhibition--Hotel Takanawa, Tokyo

　1996　Reorganized the Toun School of Woodcarving and created the Uekusa Toun Woodcarvers Association

　Present--Head of the association

　　　　　 Lecturer at the Japanese Arts Center