Kosen Ohtsubo

Kosen Ohtsubo (b. 1939 in Ashio, Japan) is a Japanese ikebana artist active in Japan and internationally for more than six decades. Over many years in the education department of Ikebana Ryuseiha, he pursued the technical and formal traditions of ikebana while teaching generations of students.

His practice has encompassed a wide range of avant-garde ikebana works, from small compositions to large-scale spatial installations. He frequently uses vegetables, wild plants, and discarded objects, often working with deliberately simple methods. A lifelong jazz enthusiast, he values improvisation and responsiveness, often allowing materials and circumstances to shape the final form of a work. His work has been presented internationally, including recent exhibitions at Kunstverein München and the Shanghai Biennale. He lives and works at Flower Planet, his studio in Saitama, Japan.

Kosen Ohtsubo has collaborated with Finnish contemporary artist Tuomas A. Laitinen in joint exhibitions at Pioneer Works in New York and Helsinki Contemporary in Helsinki in 2026.