IBASHO presents Ikebana, the third solo exhibition of Japanese photographer Mika Horie, opening on 6 September 2026. Works from the eponymous series are presented alongside Fuki, a series debuted at Paris Photo 2025 that explores the figure of the Japanese nude.
Mika Horie (1984) creates cyanotypes on paper she makes herself. Trees, water and light are the main elements that she uses to forge her artworks. She lives in Yamanaka Onsen, Kaga, Ishikawa prefecture, in a Meiji-era farmhouse and studio in the mountains. After the snow melts in spring, Horie drives to the mountains to gather gampi branches - the raw material she collects to make traditional paper. Horie processes the gampi fibers fully by hand into delicate-looking but sturdy paper, which is the material on which she prints cyanotype images.
A process that blooms
Ikebana is a series inspired by Horie’s experience of caring for her mother, who suffers from dementia. In the midst of an inner turbulent mind, the simple act of gazing at flowers printed in the newspaper or blooming in the garden would bring her tranquility. Witnessing this, Horie realised that flowers are imbued with a magnificent energy capable of touching anyone’s heart. This epiphany sparked a profound fascination with ikebana, leading the artist to enroll in lessons on the Japanese art of formal flower arrangement.
Horie aspires to fully embody a spirit of ‘altruism’—arranging flowers with thoughts of family, friends, or others, or with the hope of soothing the hearts of those in any given space. By spending time with flowers, she clears the mental noise to attain a state of inner stillness. Ikebana embodies the essence of simple, everyday beauty rooted in prayer and peace. In Horie’s words: “Through the creation of these works, I hope to share the biodiversity and beauty of plants from Japan and around the world with people, and to provide them with an opportunity to experience first-hand the creativity that can emerge even from the most modest aspects of daily life.” All ‘Ikebana’ works are unique hand-painted cyanotypes.
Mika Horie was born in Kyoto, Japan in 1984. During her Bachelor studies at the Kyoto University of Art and Design, she got interested in photography and Japanese paper-making. After graduating she worked as a freelance photographer and in 2008 she spent one year in the United Kingdom for a MA European Arts Practice (Fine Art) at Kingston University in London. In 2013, she established her own studio space in Kaga City and after practical training with a traditional papermaker in Shiga, she started to pursue the aesthetic values of Japanese paper and cyanotype photography. Mika Horie has exhibited her work several times in Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, Belgium, The Netherlands and in the United Kingdom.
