Have you ever made a story of your own out of a magazine clipping or a torn page from an old book?

Collage is a form of expression anyone can enjoy, whatever their age or experience. I have been making collage on my own for over fifteen years, and I am still drawn in by how deep and how free it can be.

Hands cutting a paper pattern on a cutting mat during a collage workshop

Choose. Cut. Paste.

My workshops are built on three simple steps — choosing the material, cutting it out, pasting it down. In those three steps you feel the pleasure of making something where chance and intention meet.

Along the way you touch a piece of history or culture, and you spend the time building something new from a viewpoint that is yours alone.

By choosing, cutting and combining the fragments you find “interesting” or “beautiful” in the world around you, you train an eye that sees the everyday differently — and take a first step into making. That is what I aim for.

A table covered with printed collage materials, scissors and glue
Circles cut from old book illustrations, ready to become button badges

It began with Hokusai Manga

In junior high school, my art teacher told us about Hokusai Manga and about European history. That story became the origin of my collage workshops.

Using the enormous body of drawings in Hokusai Manga as collage material, I began running history-through-making workshops at schools and companies in the Netherlands. In Japan too, people from children to adults have made their own “Hokusai Manga collage”.

For students in Japan and high schoolers in the Netherlands, Hokusai Manga became the way in to Japonisme — the unprecedented wave of enthusiasm for Japan that swept 19th-century Europe — learned while making.

Kisho Matsuo giving a talk in a school gym, with the workshop title on the screen
Students choosing collage materials laid out along a long table in a school gym
Finished Hokusai Manga collage made by a student
Finished Hokusai Manga collage made by a student
Finished Hokusai Manga collage with a torii gate, made by a student

Themes and formats

Collage suits any generation, and I plan and run workshops in a range of formats to fit the occasion.

Participants study the history behind the material while they work. Past sessions have produced notebooks, button badges, keychains, stickers, menko cards and bookmarks.

Three collage button badges made from Japanese patterns and old illustrations

Themes I have built workshops around include:

Two collage bookmarks held up by a participant
Collage bookmark in a clear sleeve
Notebook cover decorated with a cut-paper Ainu pattern

Selected workshops

Press

In 2021 my Hokusai Manga collage workshops were featured in Levende Talen Magazine, a Dutch journal for language education.

What I bring, what you provide

I bring the collage materials, scissors, glue sticks, glue mats and masking tape for up to about 20 participants. Please provide work tables and chairs.

Budget

Fees are discussed to fit the scale and budget of the event.

As a guide, planning and running a workshop starts from ¥50,000 (negotiable; separate quote if my own collage or design work is included). Participation fees run ¥1,500–2,500 per person, of which 80% is invoiced.

Participants take home the notebook or badge they have decorated with their own collage; keychains and bookmarks are also possible.

Get in touch

I look forward to building a workshop with you that stays in the memory of everyone who takes part.

Contact