Born in 1947 in Nagano. Completed graduate course in sculpture at Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music in 1975. Contemporary sculpture who has re-established and constantly questioned about the state of sculpture after Mono-ha. In additoin to the participation in the 43rd Venice Biennale and being an awardee of Asian Award at Kwanju Biennale 2000, he has run solo exhibitions such as “forest of visions” at Hiroshima City Museum of Contemoprary Art (1995), “folds, gazes and anima of the woods” at Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagoya (2003), and “Shigeo Toya : Memories in the cave” at Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum (2011-12). His artworks which uniquly pursue an alternate potential to Wenstern style sculptures are highly regarded internationaly.