Surie
Surie (すり餌) is an illustrator from Iwate Prefecture, Japan. Working in a deliberately simple line, Surie combines the soft, graded colour of ink-wash painting with the flat, considered composition of graphic design, in what the artist describes as a designed, modern Japanese (wa) style. The subjects are drawn from classical Japanese literature, above all the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, whose thirteenth-century poems are given new visual form in figures, costume and seasonal motifs.
Alongside original work, Surie produces cover illustrations for novels, artwork for music videos and package design. The work has been featured in the annuals ILLUSTRATION 2022 and VISIONS 2024. A first collected volume, Sasameuta, was published by Graphic-sha in November 2023: more than 150 illustrations, most of them newly drawn around the Hyakunin Isshu and laid out to be read like a picture scroll, with modern Japanese translations of the poems supervised by Hiroyuki Nagayoshi, a chapter of line drawings and a making-of section.
The book was launched with an exhibition and signings at TSUTAYA BOOKSTORE Shimokitazawa, Tokyo, in December 2023, and Surie held a solo exhibition at 9DAYS GALLERY, Shibuya Modi, Tokyo, in 2025. Surie's work is presented in Europe by Tokiol.
Selected exhibitions
2025 Solo exhibition, 9DAYS GALLERY, Shibuya Modi, Tokyo
2023 Sasameuta release exhibition, TSUTAYA BOOKSTORE Shimokitazawa, Tokyo
Publications
Sasameuta: Surie Sakuhinshu, Graphic-sha, 2023
ILLUSTRATION 2022 (featured), Shoeisha, 2021
VISIONS 2024 (featured), 2023
