Bishu SAITO was born in 1943(Tokyo). His ancestors had been netsuke carvers from the Edo period and he is a fourth-generation carver. He learned carving skills from his father Shosai SAITO and he studied sketching and the plastic arts at Taiheiyō Art School.
As a fourth generation carver of the family business, he also grew up enjoying the fine art and craft at the National Museum of Western Art and Tokyo National Museum in Ueno.
These became the sources of his artistic originality.
In the “contemporary netsuke movement” that aimed to create new artistic work starting in the 1970s, Bishu was one of the central artists who exhibited new and novel contemporary netsuke.
In 1981 his work was acquired by the British Museum.
Today Bishu still devotes himself to testing the possibilities of netsuke and carving every day.
