About Mori Atelier森アトリエについて

Eiko Mori (森映子), head of Mori Atelier (森アトリエ), was born in 1934 in Hamachō, Nihonbashi, as the eldest daughter of Yoshitoshi Mori.

After graduating from the crafts department of Joshibi University of Art and Design (女子美術大学工芸科), she helped with her father’s dyeing work. In 1957 her father entered the 1st Tokyo International Print Biennale (第一回東京国際版画ビエンナーレ展) and competed for the top prize with Yōzō Hamaguchi (浜口陽三; copperplate). Although he missed the grand prize, he gained confidence, and this became the great turning point that led him to start anew as a printmaker. From then on, she shouldered the family’s livelihood together with her mother (以久), took over the Mori Kōbō workshop (森工房), and began her path as a dyer.

For some 25 years, from the age of 25 to 49, she worked as a dye artist. Along the way, Mori Kōbō (森工房) became independent of her father; she moved the workshop to Ebisu and set out on her own with a small staff.

In 1957 her father signed an exclusive contract with the Nihonbashi Gallery (日本橋画廊) run by Tetsurō Kojima (児島徹郎), and by holding a solo exhibition every year from 1958 to 1965 he laid the foundations of his career as a printmaker. Around this time Eiko met Paul Watabe (ポール渡部), who was on the staff of the Nihonbashi Gallery (日本橋画廊). She later helped him found the Paul Gallery (ポールギャラリー) in Azabudai in 1965, and lived with him as his partner in work and in life until his death in 1982.

When Paul Watabe (ポール渡部) died, Eiko Mori was 48. Her devotion to the Paul Gallery (ポールギャラリー), which she had run with him, was her longing for him. She moved the gallery to Ginza, and for the next ten years dedicated it as a requiem to him, mainly handling abstract painting and surrealism, such as Yasuo Kuniyoshi (国吉康雄), クレーデルボー and ヴィンダリッヒ. Then, in 1992, Yoshitoshi Mori passed away at the age of 93.

Taking this as a turning point, she closed the gallery, and in 1992 the dyeing workshop Mori Kōbō (森工房) was reborn as Mori Atelier (森アトリエ), making a fresh start as a gallery handling Yoshitoshi Mori’s works. For some ten years after that, we held his exhibitions in various places. Today, wishing to make him known to more people of our time, we also produce a range of goods, sold at places such as the shop of the gallery on the fifth floor of the Kabuki-za (歌舞伎座).

I hope to write about Paul Watabe (ポール渡部) in more detail if an opportunity arises.