about masako

I was born in Osaka, Japan. In the 1970s, I traveled to the Netherlands where my involvement with the arts began at the Rotterdam School of Fine Arts. I painted in oil then and also in the following years when I lived in the Netherlands, Greece and Indonesia.

In 1976, I moved to the Philippines where I took up Oriental brush painting, studying under a successful and well-known Chinese artist in Manila. I continued my painting in Bangkok, Thailand, but now in a "free style," under Professor Lim Yao, a Thai artist of Chinese descent who is well respected throughout South East Asia for his fine paintings.

From 1989 to mid 1993 I returned to Japan. I graduated from the Sankei Gakuin School of Art in Tokyo, where I studied various Japanese painting styles, such as "Nihonga" (a medium using natural pigments), classic-style collage and brush painting on gold leaf and silk.

I have shown my paintings throughout the Midwest and have won various awards. My paintings can be found in private collections in the United States, Europe, Japan and other Asian countries.

I am a resident of Evanston, Illinois, where I have lived with my husband since 1982. I am a first-degree teacher in Ikebana (Sogetsu School), the Japanese art of flower arranging.

Read more about Masako in The World & I magazine: Masako van Leijenhorst: Peace and Vibrance.