1921
Born in Kobe. Spends youth in Dalian and Harbin in Manchuria.
1938-45
Studied at Joshibi Women’s School of Art and Design; studies interrupted by war.
1950s
Works in the Chikuho mining region of Kyushu, producing drawings and lithographs expressing the artist’s social commitment. Exhibit at Shiseidō Gallery in Ginza September 26-October 1, 1954.
1960s
Travels to Latin America via Africa, and later to the Middle East and Central Asia.
1970s
Produces lithographs based on the poetry of South Korean political prisoner, Kim Ji-ha. Chained Hands in Prayer, Korea is finished in 1975.
1975
Completes On the Poems of Kim Ji-ha and Pablo Neruda, a series of lithographs exhibited in New York, Chicago, and Berkeley. Also completes Deep Night: Poems by Kim Ji-ha: Prints by Tomiyama Taeko and Heaven and Earth in Central Asia.
1976-77
Following the censorship of a television program on Kim Ji-ha, Tomiyama sets up Hidane Kōbō, a workshop/studio for the production of multi-media slide works. Tomiyama’s collaborations with musician and composer Takahashi Yūji have continued to the present. The film, composed of photographs of Tomiyama’s lithographs, is also called Chained Hands in Prayer, Korea.
1980
Kwangju, May 1980: A Prayer in Memory, shown in Sapporo and the Kansai region of Japan.
1982-83
Exhibitions held in Paris, Berlin, Heidelberg and Munich.
1984
Completes Coerced and Forlorn, a series of lithographs and collages based on poems by Yun Dong-ju, who wrote about conscripted Korean laborers, and who died at 28 in a prison in Fukuoka, Japan. Hajike Hosenka (Pop Out Balsam Seeds!), a film produced by Tsuchimoto Noriaki (Gentōsha) is based on this work.
1986
Completes a series of paintings treating the theme of the “military comfort women,” Memories of the Sea. These works are dramatized as Umi nari, hana yose (The roaring of the sea, the gathering of flowers), directed by Satō Shin, performed by Black Tent.
1988
Completes multi-media slide work, A Memory of the Sea, which is exhibited in London and Berlin.
1989-92
A Thai Girl Who Never Returned Home exhibited in Bangkok and Tokyo. The paintings that were the basis of this slide show comprise Let’s Go to Japan!
1995
Tomiyama Taeko: 50 Years after the War: Silenced by History exhibit at Tama Art University Museum, Tokyo and Donga Gallery, Seoul.
Completes multi-media slide work Harbin: Requiem for the 20th Century. Invited to exhibit in the Art as Witness project at the first Gwangju Biennale.
1998
From Asians: Tomiyama Taeko and Hong Song-dam, exhibition held in Gwangju at the May 18 Cemetery, Special Gallery, Puchon City Hall in South Korea and in Kawasaki City, Japan.
1999
Exhibition of work at Liberty Osaka. Completes multi-media slide work, The Fox Story: Illusion of Cherry Blossoms and Chrysanthemums
2000
Invited to exhibit work in the 3rd Gwangju Biennale. Collaborative project Fox and Coal Mines exhibited in Tokyo.
2001
Let’s Go to Japan! exhibited at Seikei University, Tokyo.
2002
The Shaman and the Fox exhibited at Kyoto Seika University.
2005-06
Remembrance and Reconciliation, collages and prints, exhibited in Ruhr, Germany, Philadelphia, and Evanston, IL.
2009
Embracing Asia- Tomiyama Taeko’s Complete Works, 1950-2009 exhibit held at Echigo Tsumari Art Triennale in Niigata. During the exhibition, Tomiyama’s new series on Hiruko and the Puppeteers: A Tale of Sea Wanderers was screened with music by Yuji Takahashi, Ayuo and Reki Shibata.
Begins new series on Afghanistan.
2013
“Tomiyama Taeko: Revelation for the Modern Era” exhibit held at the Tokyo Art Museum, Chofu.
2015
Exhibited work in Banned Images exhibit nGbK, Berlin.
2016
Produced “Special exhibition, Tomiyama Taeko: The End of the Beginning or the Beginning of the End? at Maruki Gallery For The Hiroshima Panels.
2017
Exhibited in “Truth: Promise for Peace” at National Women’s History Exhibition Hall, Seoul.
2019
Exhibited in “The End of the Beginning or the Beginning of the End? Once Again.” Fujino Club, Kanagawa Prefecture.
2021
Tomiyama passed away at her home in Tokyo on August 18, 2021 at age 99.