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  ©Kikuji Kawada

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  ©Hisako Sakurai

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  ©Takeshi Shikama

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  ©Mark & Kristen Sink

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  ©Masanobu Seike

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  ©Kiyoshi Yagi

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  ©Satoru Yoshioka

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  ©Satoru Yoshioka

Tosa Hakkinshi

Tosa Hakkinshi is a washi paper developed in collaboration with the Tosa-no-Yama Paper Resource Association, a group of young papermaking artisans, together with Satoru Yoshioka and Ayako Yamane, and with support from the Ino Regional Employment Promotion Council.

The paper’s ideal characteristics for the platinum palladium printing process are the result of repeated experimentation and test printing.

Growing interest in washi paper

Demand for washi paper suitable for platinum palladium printing is growing each year. Paper made with gampi fiber offers exceptional density, translucency, and a delicate texture not found in Western papers. However, due to its high susceptibility to changes in temperature and humidity, gampi-based paper is prone to wrinkling and creasing, making it difficult to handle.

The unique qualities of Tosa Hakkinshi

To address these problems, Tosa Hakkinshi is made primarily from kozo fibers grown in Gohoku in the town of Ino and blended with domestically sourced gampi fibers. Skilled papermakers finish the paper with utmost care to avoid damage to the fibers, resulting in its exceptional durability that fully leverages the “500-year” archival quality of platinum palladium printing.

Since its introduction in 2013, Tosa Hakkinshi has been highly regarded by printmakers and photographers from around the world.

About this exhibition

This exhibition features works by ten photographers printed on Tosa Hakkinshi paper. Each photographer has explored the unique qualities of the paper to express their photographic vision with unmatched tonal depth and texture.

We hope you enjoy the creative possibilities that arise from the combination of Tosa washi paper and platinum printing.

(Note: The exhibition also includes works produced using other techniques.)

Participating Artists

Kenro Izu

Yoshihiko Ito

Kikuji Kawada

Hisako Sakurai

Takeshi Shikama

Mark & Kristen Sink

Masanobu Seike

Sarah Moon

Kiyoshi Yagi

Satoru Yoshioka

Kenro Izu
Born in Osaka, Japan in 1949. After studying at Nihon University College of Art in Tokyo, Kenro Izu moved to the United States, where he has been based in New York for over 50 years, continuing to produce and exhibit his work.
In 2021, he returned to Japan and resumed his artistic activities, now based in Kanazawa.
For more than thirty years, Izu has photographed stone monuments and sacred sites across Egypt, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia using a 14×20-inch large-format camera, creating platinum prints that capture the subtle nuances and spirituality of these places.
In 1993, during his first visit to Cambodia to photograph the Angkor Wat, Izu was confronted with the devastating reality of children who had fallen victim to landmines. This experience led him to establish the non-profit organization Friends Without A Border in 1996. Through this organization, he has been involved in numerous projects, including the construction and operation of children’s hospitals in Cambodia and Laos.

Yoshihiko Ito
Born in Yamagata, Japan in 1951, Ito graduated from Tokyo College of Photography in 1977.
He is known for his distinctive contact print works, in which he prints an entire roll of 35mm half-frame film onto a single sheet of photographic paper. These works express the invisible flow of time and consciousness between the artist and his subjects within a single frame.
Around the year 2000, he began creating the Patrone series, departing from his earlier method. In this series, he deconstructs and reassembles photographic prints—tearing and recomposing the images to condense time and present a unique visual narrative.
Due to the discontinuation of photographic paper production, he discontinued the Patrone series, and around 2015, he began producing frottage works using traditional Japanese washi paper.

Kikuji Kawada
Born in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan in 1933. Kawada co-founded the VIVO(1959-1961) photographic collective in 1959. In 1974, he was one of the fifteen artists selected for the exhibition New Japanese Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1974.
Selected recent solo exhibition: Le Rouge et le Noir, RICHO Imaging Square Tokyo (2020, Tokyo), Endless Map, PGI (2021, Tokyo), Chizu/The Map, The Third Gallery Aya (2022, Osaka), Los Caprichos, Near Far, PGI (2022 Tokyo), For Vortex, Purple (2022, Kyoto), The Map/Visions of the Invisible, Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum (2024, Kyoto), Los Caprichos, Demon of Tomorrow, PGI (2022, Tokyo).

Hisako Sakurai
Graduated from the Department of Photography at Parsons School of Design, New York, in 1992.
Major solo exhibitions include in the window, Sokyusha (2017, Tokyo), Forms, Roonee 247 Fine Arts (2019, Tokyo); and Bird – Dromaius / to Platinum, Ricoh Imaging Square Tokyo (2020, Tokyo).

Takeshi Shikama
After a career in the design, Shikama began working as a photographer in 2002. His experiences building a mountain lodge in the forest awakened a deep sensitivity to nature, which became the foundation of his photographic expression. 
His first photo book, Mori no Hida – Silent Respiration of Forests (2007), aimed to capture the “invisible world” behind the visible. Subsequent series like Evanescence and Contemplation continued to explore themes of natural cycles and transience. 
Since 2008, Shikama has employed the platinum/palladium printing technique, and from 2010 onwards, he has printed on handmade Japanese Gampi paper, imparting a unique texture and depth to his works.

Mark & Kristen Sink
Mark Sink and Kristen Hatgi Sink are a photographer couple based in Denver, Colorado, known for their romantic portraiture using the 19th-century photographic technique known as the wet plate collodion process.
Since the 2010s, Mark and Kristen have been producing joint works using the wet plate collodion process. Their portrait series blends the aesthetic of the Victorian era with a modern sensibility, creating a unique visual world. They have held joint exhibitions at venues such as Robin Rice Gallery in New York and received widespread acclaim.

Masanobu Seike
Born in Yamaguchi Prefecture. Graduated from the Junior College of Tokyo University of Photography (now Tokyo Polytechnic University)
Since 1976, has been working as a freelance photographer, specializing in commercial, film, and advertising photography.

Sarah Moon
Born in France in 1941, she began her career as a fashion model in the 1960s before turning to photography. In 1970, she started working as a fashion photographer and filmmaker under the name Sarah Moon, contributing to fashion magazines and brand advertising. In 1979, she received the Golden Lion at the International Advertising Film Festival. In 1985, she was awarded the Infinity Award by the International Center of Photography in New York. In 1995, she received the Photography Prize from the National Center of Photography in Paris for her retrospective. Her photobook Sarah Moon 1,2,3,4,5, published in 2008, was awarded the Nadar Prize. In Japan, she held exhibitions at Kahitsukan, the Kyoto Museum of Contemporary Art in 2002 and 2004.

Kiyoshi Yagi
Born in Nagano, Japan in 1968. After graduating from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in journalism, he studied under Takeshi Mizukoshi, a Japanese nature photographer. He has been traveling to arctic regions to photograph indigenous peoples, the Eskimo and the Aleut as well as the nature surrounding them with a large format camera since 1994. He produces his prints using platinum paper. He was the recipient of the Photographic Society of Japan, Newcomer’s Award in 2004 and the Tabuchi Yukio Award 2nd prize in 2005.
Solo exhibitions include The Family of Far North – Portrait of the Eskimo and the Aleut, Aidem Photo Gallery Sirius (2005, Tokyo), Portrait of the Eskimo and the Aleut, P.G.I. (2006, Tokyo), Across the Arctic 1994-2007, P.G.I. (2007, Tokyo), sila, P.G.I. (2011, Tokyo), Silat Naalagaq, P.G.I. (2015, Tokyo), Reminiscences of the Tundra, PGI (2024, Tokyo).

Satoru Yoshioka
Born in Kochi City, Kochi Prefecture, Japan in 1963. Graduated in 1996 from the Department of Photography at Palomar College in California, USA, and was primarily active in the United States until returning to Japan in 2007, when he relocated his base to Kochi City.
His work is known for its unique perspective incorporating themes such as science and physics. Photographs taken at accelerator facilities around the world explore the intersection of cutting-edge science and the human condition. Yoshioka is also well-versed in traditional photographic techniques, producing and conducting workshops on platinum printing and cyanotype using handmade Tosa washi paper.
Solo exhibitions include Whatever is sensible, Beauty distorts, Polaroid Gallery (1996, Tokyo), Sciencescape – Science expands new landscape photography, Zuiun-an (2014, Kyoto).