She describes this technique with the Japanese term “hikarie”, literally translated as towards the light.
In December, Satoko came to Jasper from Saitama, Japan, a city of more than one million people, located 30 km north of Tokyo. Her father was a painter and her grandma taught her origami.
While attending St. Joost in Breda, Netherlands, Satoko discovered hikarie while making ink prints on paper. Creating a collage of paper layers to be rolled over with ink, she held the work up to the light to check for any mistakes, and noticed how the differences in paper thickness let in different amounts of light.
For the past 10 years, Satoko has experimented with hikarie using different colours and sizes of paper.
“I can get inspiration from small pieces of paper and then I just continue with it,” she said. Her work depicting a man under an umbrella, shielded from falling rain is one example. A tiny, triangular-shaped piece of paper gave her the inspiration to use it as rain, then the idea snowballed.
One project Satoko created is the shoji she decorated for her beloved grandma after she became bed-ridden. A shoji is a door, window or room divider consisting of translucent paper over a wood frame.
“I wanted to make something that would cheer her up every day,” she said, “When the morning sun rays come through the shoji doors of her room, the picture of our garden full of flowers becomes visible.”
Exhibiting her work is difficult because each piece requires a light source, but some places have accommodated her pieces.
“Some sold and I was really happy,” she said.
Currently, Satoko works as a freelance illustrator. Photos of her creations are featured on billboards in Japan, as art in children’s books, and even on postcards.
While spending time in Jasper with her husband over the next months, Satoko hopes the landscape and her experiences will lead her to explore different art techniques.
“When I move to a different place, I look for new inspiration.”
