Minoru Togashi

Minoru Togashi (b. 1931) is one of the important Japanese sculptors of the postwar era, whose distinguished career has combined Buddhist philosophical foundations with a sustained international artistic practice. Born in Tsuruoka, in the former Kushibiki area of Yamagata Prefecture in northern Japan, Togashi has remained deeply connected to his native region throughout his life, and much of his mature public work now graces the natural landscape of his home city.

Togashi began his formal artistic training in 1948, studying Buddhist sculpture under the master sculptor Hakuun Sakuma in Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture. This early immersion in the ancient Japanese tradition of religious sculpture gave him both foundational technical skills and a spiritual grounding that would inform his mature practice. He continued his education at the sculpture division of the Kyoto Municipal College of Art, now the Kyoto City University of Arts, graduating in 1957.

Togashi's international profile developed early. In 1963 he represented Japan at the Yugoslavia International Sculptors' Symposium, and in 1964 he began the Stairway in the Void series that would become his signature body of work. In 1968 he traveled to Paris to study at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts as a French government scholarship recipient. Working under the theme Stairway in the Void, drawn from Buddhist philosophy, Togashi has unveiled his sculptural work to the world for more than four decades. His public art harmonizes with people's daily lives, and he has always hoped viewers would look at, touch, and feel his sculptures directly. Much of his work can be seen throughout Tsuruoka, blending naturally with the surrounding scenery.

In 1974 Togashi became Managing Director of Kyoto Seian Women's College, and he later served as Dean of Seian University of Art and Design from 1993. He has received numerous major honors, including the Kyoto Prefecture Culture Prize in 1992, the Kyoto Art and Culture Prize and Kyoto City Prize for Contribution to Culture in 1996, and the Medal with Dark Blue Ribbon in 1999. He is Professor Emeritus of Seian University of Art and Design and an Honorary Citizen of Tsuruoka City, and he continues to reside in Kyoto.