Toko Shinoda was born in Manchuria in 1913, Schooled in traditional calligraphy, she had her first exhibition in Tokyo in 1940. Her abstract work began in 1947, and by the 1950's, her sumi paintings had been exhibited at the MOMA and other museums and galleries in New York, Boston, Washington, Paris and Brussels and very many museums in Japan. In about 1960. she began producing lithographs, making beautiful abstract prints in quite small editions, some with added hand brushed strokes in sumi ink. Controlling the subtle differences of grey tones in printmaking, she says, is very difficult. Dark blacks are easy to control, but the soft greys are another problem, and unless the print lives up to the high standards of Shinoda's expectations, it isn't published. Shinoda still practices calligraphy, the root of her art, about once every two weeks, although she states that her approach towards painting and calligraphy are completely different. She is considered the grande dame of contemporary Japanese artists