Meet Yoshiko & Bruce
Yoshiko Yamamoto is the founder and the proprietor of the Arts & Crafts Press. Born and raised in Tokyo, Yoshiko's love of printmaking began early. As a teenager, her favorite pastime was to wander through the old dusty bookshops and print shops, collecting the traditional Japanese woodblock prints. After graduating from UC Berkeley in history and music and while working as freelance writer, she and her husband, Bruce Smith, founded the Arts & Crafts Press in 1996.
As a blockprint and watercolor artist, Yoshiko has created numerous landscape and botanical prints and over 250 letterpress greeting cards. Her commissions include the projects for Disney Grand Californian Hotel, the Gamble House National Historic Register, and Patagonia Books, to name a few.
When Yoshiko is not in the studio making prints, she’s often found in her garden, digging, planting, and feeding the wild birds that frequent her garden.
Now she is spending more time in Kamakura, Japan.
A writer of architectural history and food, Bruce has lead many colorful lives, including running restaurants in both Tokyo and Santa Barbara, California, volunteering at a legal aid clinic for immigrants, and helping organize the yearly peace ceremony “From Hiroshima to Hope” in Seattle, Washington. A complete foodie, Bruce is always experimenting with new recipes. Currently, when he isn’t at his desk writing, he is exploring and eating his way through Tokyo. His most recent book, Six California Kitchens, he wrote with the legendary chef and founder of The French Laundry, Sally Schmitt, about her fifty years at the forefront of California Cuisine.
And Wabi, our little Java sparrow, is also an important member of our Press, chirping, playing, eating and dozing in the sun, inspiring us to enjoy each and every day.
