Yoko Togashi
Glassblower
Tokyo, Japan
The brightness of blossoming glass
- While she sometimes works with soft colours, Yoko favours transparent and white glass
- She draws a wide range of expressions by combining traditional Venetian filigrana technique with cutting and polishing
- Her work is held in multiple public collections and has been recognised with several notable awards in Japan and abroad
Yoko Togashi majored in oil painting at Musashino Art University and worked at a stained glass atelier for two years in the mid-1990s. It was her encounter with blown glass during a trip to Venice that marked a turning point for her creatively. Drawn to the beauty of light passing through the transparent membrane of glass, Yoko soon enrolled at the Toyama Glass Art Institute, where she learned the fundamentals of glasswork. Her inspiration comes from the structures and forms found in nature, such as the pods of lily seeds and the shapes of petals. "I seek to give form to the energy that wells up from within life itself, rather than pursuing realism," says Yoko. Combining blown glass with cutting and polishing techniques, she breathes into her works the fluidity and gentleness that characterises her own being.
INTERVIEW
I favour transparent and white glass. While I feel the vitality of life in its fluid, ever-changing state under heat, I am also drawn to the quality of this hard material softly holding and emanating light. By creating delicate shadows, I seek to express a softness that makes one want to reach out and touch it.
My work is built upon the accumulation of the dynamic moment when glass moves under heat, and the quiet time spent carving the cooled, hardened material. By capturing the fleeting fluid form and then carefully grinding and polishing over time, I bring together the freshness of life and a timeless stillness within a single work. I believe the harmony of these contrasting elements defines my practice.
Understanding materials and techniques takes a long time, but continue at your own pace. If you can find joy in each step of the journey ahead, that is a truly fortunate way to live.
"To bloom softly." Through the medium of glass, I hope to share with the world the warm light of life and the brightness of blossoming.
