MIHARU HATORI

Miharu Hatori is a Calligraphy artist based in  Tamamura-machi, Gunma Prefecture,Japan. She was born on 23rd September 1947 in Annaka, Gunma Prefecture, Japan. Miharu did not attend a formal  calligraphy school or institution. She began to learn calligraphy at the age of twenty-eight  from her teacher Sho-Kei. She gradually moved into starting her private calligraphy school .She also holds experience of teaching Calligraphy for forty years in a  public agency. Her major solo shows includes exhibitions in Takasaki city, Gunma Prefecture.

Miharu believes that practicing calligraphy has enriched her life and made it beautiful and poetic. Her strong artistic point is Kanji (a kind of Japanese writing system) which she uses to create calligraphic works on paper and cloth. Washi or the Japanese handmade paper is her main surface of work. She also uses cloth such as hemp as a support. Travelling to different parts of the world has contributed to her artistic oeuvre and she has expanded her practices onto materials such as papyrus from Egypt and Hanji from Korea.

She works primarily with Sumi-e ink stick rubbed onto a stone  with water. She then creates calligraphy with Japanese bamboo brushes onto the varieties of washi. The nature of her art primarily includes text. This is to say, that poetry written in an artistic manner, is both her major genre and forte of her work. It has also made the comprehension of her work by the masses, more possible. 

Miharu has spent her life balancing her role as a mother and an artist. She is a mother to Yuichi Hatori (son) born on 16th March 1970 and is a mathematics teacher in a school . On 11th July 1974 she gave birth to her daughter Yumi Kanazawa who work in a public agency . She is grandmother too,  to the four children of her daughter and her son with their respective spouses. Miharu lives in the Japanese countryside , in  a traditional wooden Japanese house, with her husband Tameji Hatori . She happily divides her time between holding art classes at her art school at home, her individual studio work , public lectures, travelling for international workshops and family life. 

The Artist at Work

A Life well written through Calligraphy

Family, Friends and Students