Hironori Kiyoshima, also known as Hiro Kiyoshima, is a Japanese figurative sculptor based in Kumamoto, Japan. Originally from Kagoshima, he has developed a sculptural practice rooted in the human figure, exploring the fragile boundary between beauty, suffering, dignity, and transformation. Kiyoshima holds an MFA and a Ph.D. in Fine Arts from Sojo University, where he currently serves as Professor of Fine Arts. While his academic work connects traditional sculpture with digital technologies, his studio practice remains at the center of his career. Working across clay, bronze, acrylic resin, 3D scanning, and digital sculpting, he brings together classical craftsmanship and contemporary processes to expand the expressive possibilities of figurative sculpture. His work has received recognition in Japan and abroad, including major awards at the Japan Sculpture Association Exhibition, the Japan Fine Art Exhibition, the ARC International Salon, and the GCA International Figure Sculpture Competition in New York. He has also served as an invited juror for both the Japan Fine Art Exhibition and the Japan Sculpture Association Exhibition. Kiyoshima’s sculptures have been exhibited in Japan and internationally, including solo exhibitions in Manila and Mandaluyong, presentations at The Manila’Bang Show: The Metro Art Fair, and exhibitions at major Japanese venues such as the National Art Center Tokyo and the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. In addition to gallery exhibitions, he has created public sculptures and commissioned works installed in museums, schools, banks, and cultural sites in Japan. These works reflect his belief that figurative sculpture can exist not only as an object of contemplation, but also as a lasting presence within public and cultural memory.

My work begins with the human figure. For me, the body is not only a physical form, but a vessel of memory, suffering, desire, resistance, and quiet hope. Through sculpture, I seek to reveal the inner life that appears when human beings confront their own fragility. I am interested in the moment when beauty and pain coexist. A figure may appear wounded, restrained, emerging, or transformed, yet within that condition I try to find dignity. I do not see vulnerability as weakness. Rather, I believe that human beings often reveal their deepest truth when they are placed in states of tension, silence, or suffering. My practice is rooted in traditional figurative sculpture: clay modeling, anatomical observation, casting, and the direct physical labor of shaping material. At the same time, I actively work with digital technologies such as 3D scanning, digital sculpting, 3D printing, and visualization. These tools do not replace the hand; they expand the field in which the hand, the eye, and the imagination can operate. A close friend and critic has described my work as a form of Neo-Romantic figurative sculpture. I feel a strong affinity with this perspective. My sculptures are not simply realist representations of the body. They are attempts to give form to emotional intensity, spiritual conflict, and the fragile dignity of human existence. In this sense, I see my work as connected to a Romantic tradition, while also extending it through contemporary materials, digital processes, and the conditions of the present age. Through series such as Emergence, I explore the possibility of rebirth and transformation. The body becomes a site where another existence begins to appear — a symbol of inner awakening, liberation, or the painful process of becoming. My aim is to create figurative human sculptures where beauty and fragility resonate, and where viewers can encounter the human body not only as form, but as a presence that speaks silently across time, culture, and language.