Co-founder and Member of Advisory Board, MUJI and Director, Towada Art Centre, Towada
Born in Tokyo, Koike Kazuko graduated from the School of Literature of Waseda University. She began her writing career in the 1960s as a copywriter and fashion editor. In 1975, she coordinated the Inventive Clothes – 1909-1939 exhibition at the Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art.
Koike founded Japan’s first alternative art space, the SAGACHO Exhibit Space, and served as its curator from 1983-2000. Since 2011, she has been leading SAGACHO Archives, which is devoted to reexamining and displaying art-related documents and creative works related to SAGACHO Exhibit Space.
As one of the original founders of MUJI, Koike has been on the advisory board since MUJI’s establishment in 1980. She is also Professor Emeritus of Musashino Art University in Tokyo, and currently, Director of the Towada Art Centre in Northern Japan’s Aomori Prefecture. Her most recently published works include Where did Issey come from? The Work of Issey Miyake (HeHe Publishing, 2017).