Azuma Makoto

Born in 1976. Flower Artist

Teamed up with Shunsuke Shiinoki in 2002 to open JARDINS des FLEURS, a “haute couture” flower shop offering bouquets designed on-demand using flowers purchased for the respective order, in the Ginza area (now located in Minami-Aoyama) in Tokyo.

In addition to the flower shop business, around 2005 he began to explore the expressive potential of flowers. He invented the genre of the “botanical sculpture”, creating works for which he soon received orders also from outside Japan. Following a solo exhibition in New York, his experimental works have been repeatedly shown at places including Paris and Dusseldorf. While launching the experimental botanical lab Azuma Makoto Kaju Kenkyusho (AMKK) in 2009, he went on to exhibit his works at art museums, galleries and public spaces in Milan, Belgium, Shanghai and Mexico among others.

In recent years, Azuma has been focusing on his project arranging flowers in all kinds of mundane situations that don’t occur in the realm of nature, and continues to pursue the beaty of plants from a unique point of view.

Shiinoki Shunsuke

Born in 1976, Botanical Photographer

Opened the “haute couture”flower shop JARDINS des FLEURS at Ginza together with Azuma Makoto in 2002. Around the time Azuma first started creating his botanical sculpture, he began to point his camera at ever-changing forms of life, committing himself to capturing such processes of gradual decay.Having been working with plants and facing the cycle of life and death on a daily basis, he developed an ability to highlight the genuine color, vital energy and mystique of flowers and plants as specifically natural qualities.