Ari Tomita is one of the world's foremost avant-garde calligraphic brush artists. She studied Chinese calligraphy (kanji) and culture for several years with Sensei Hayashi, a Buddhist monk and brush master, receiving her shihon master certification from the Japan National Sho (brush) Association. This was followed by fifteen years of kana (Japanese calligraphy ) under National Art Treasure, Takako Oishi (1898-2000).

A few years later, Ari Tomita was mentored by Shiryu Morita (1912-1998) a world-renown avant-garde calligraphy artist from Kyoto whose work influenced several abstract expressionist painters including Robert Motherwell, Mark Toby, and Franz Kline. Tomita is perhaps the only contemporary Japanese artist with shihan certification, who has studied under a kano master, a kanji master, a Buddhist monk, and in a school of modem art.

As a classically trained master brush artist, Tomita's background is unusual because she started out studying modem art and Western philosophy. It is not surprising that that's she came to North America as a cultural educator and ambassador. Before moving to the States, Ms. Tomita also practiced Zen, ikebana (flower arranging), kendo (sword), and pottery. She also learned the art of professional cooking in the kitchen of the New Hokuhan, a famous restaurant in Ueno near the museums in central Tokyo.

For the past past twenty seven years she has lived in Honolulu, Wuhan (China), Southern California, Santa Fe, and Vancouver, (BC) painting and exhibiting her work, teaching Oriental brush as well as Japanese culture and cooking, and writing her cookbook. Merging traditional brush with western minimalism, she has created or defined a completely original modern art genre. She has invented a new method for teaching Oriental brush, and invented a 'improv' brush method for teaching collaborative creativity and problem solving.

Ari Tomita has had a number of solo and duo exhibits, and participated in several group shows. She has taught at the University of Hawaii, the Honolulu Academy of Art, and the Vancouver Academy of Art. And she co-authored the paper on Japanese Calligraphy for Berkshire's award-winning, Encyclopedia of Modern Asia, published by Scrivner and Sons.
Tomita has represented Japan at an International Calligraphy Conference, and was commissioned by the Governor of Hawaii to design a gold commemorative coin celebrating 100 years of Japanese immigration to Hawaii. She has given seminars and workshops on brush and Zen at universities and art schools in the USA, Canada, China and Israel; and she been the subject of a feature program on CTV national television.

Ari Tomita is an innovative artist and author/chef, a profound ambassador of Japanese art, and an interpreter of Japanese culture to the West. She is a regular recipe contributor to the Bulletin - a bilingual Japanese monthly magazine; and has recently completed a full color cookbook, "Beyond Sushi," with an illustrious foreword by Charlie Trotter, one of America's leading chefs, authors and restaurateurs.