Eriko Horiki

Eriko Horiki is a Japanese washi artist and designer based in Kyoto who has built a practice around translating handmade paper into architecture. Born in Kyoto in 1962, she founded SHIMUS in 1987 and established Eriko Horiki & Associates in 2000; the company keeps a gallery and office in Nakagyo-ku and a workshop in the same city.

The studio produces light walls, light ceilings, light pillars, facades and signs, installations and exhibitions. Its work starts from the papermaking tradition of Echizen and from close collaboration with its craftsmen, then adds properties the material did not have before: washi that resists fire, dirt, tearing and fading, and that can be produced to precise tolerances. The aim, in the studio’s words, is to carry tradition into the future and let innovation become the tradition of a hundred years from now.