Masao Mizukami --- Master of Masao Flower Design Academy

Masao Mizukami, a Japanese artist who is a very creative flower designer, also a very successful installation artist and landscape design. Masao was born in Tokyo to an artistic family --- his grandmother is a Koto (Japanese harp) player, his father, a watercolour painter, and his elder sister, a professor of Sogetsu.

As a child, Masao had an inherent passion for art, and acquired wide knowledge in painting, music and ikebana from home. He studied Fine Art at the Tokyo Art University and later at the L’Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Extensive travels brought him to many parts of Europe, India, Nepal, China, Southeast Asia, Egypt, the Middle East and the United States where he was aesthetically nurtured and inspired to create his own artistic expressions of great vitality.

Back to Tokyo, Masao concentrated on studying flower design at the Mami Flower Design School, after which he stayed in Japan for over 20 years. Basing his art on naturalism, and combining his own personal artistic aspirations with Asian culture, he strove to bring to perfection the beauty of space. Using creative simplicity, his flower designs in Tokyo evoked the spirits of the mountains, rivers and waterfalls. Masao also served as Professor of the famed Mami Flower Design School in Tokyo.

FLOWERING GENIUS

Masao Mizukami has spent a lifetime finding beauty in the everyday and the unseen. It is unique vision that shines through in his masterpieces. Most of us will see a used plastic bag as rubbish to be thrown away, or step over a fallen branch or leaf without noticing it. Not Masao Mizukami. The Japanese floral artist will pause to look at such things and see beauty - and artistic possibilities.

His intense love of nature and artistic vision have earned him an international reputation in floral design and installation. The widely travelled Masao is sharing his enthusiasm and demonstration his skills with flower enthusiasts everywhere.

Masao was born in Tokyo to an artistic family. His grandmother is a koto (harp) player, his father a watercolour painter and his elder sister a professor at Sogetsu, a school of traditional Japanese flower arrangement, or ikebana.

Masao’s passion was evident from an early age. As a child he was interested in painting, music and ikebana. After studying fine art at universities in Tokyo and Paris, he followed his heart through Europe, India, Egypt, Nepal, Southeast Asia, China, the Middle East and the United States, seeing beauty wherever he went. He believes the spiritual nourishment and inspiration he gained from his travels have contributed to his artistic vision.

At first Masao’s remarkable work seems like nothing you have seen before. While his basic technique uses the principles of traditional Japanese floral art, there is nothing traditional about his designs. His love of the environment runs deep and he is intrigued by both what he can and cannot see.