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Toru Iwaya (岩谷徹） (born Feb 12, 1936) is a Japanese mezzotint engraver and painter. Born in Koriyama...

Toru Iwaya (岩谷徹） (born Feb 12, 1936) is a Japanese mezzotint engraver and painter. Born in Koriyama, Japan in 1936 as the last child of Iwaya Kanekichi and Kageyama Matsu, Toru Iwaya went, at the age of 19, to Tokyo. After he graduated from the Tokyo Fisheries (東京水産) now called Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology (東京海洋大学) at the age of 24, he moved back to Koriyama where, in 1965 at the age of 29 he married Keiko Sugano. He then moved to Paris, the art capital of Europe in 1971, at the age of 35. The main reason for the Paris move was the search for artistic inspiration. Toru Iwaya is self-taught in painting and engraving and he wanted to be surrounded by an art environment. One of the main themes that dominates Toru Iwaya's work is a strong nihilism and the constant internal battle he has faced through his life in searching for answers to life's existential questions. His mezzotint technique "black technique", which is a method rarely in use today, expresses the deep world featured just beneath the motif that is floating on the black surface. His nihilism has permeated him and his work, with few exceptions; we can see it as the predominant theme that drives his work.