Toshimitsu Imai is an artist born in Kyoto in 1928. His pictorial work approaches abstraction to the Japanese sensibility. In 1948 he entered the Academy of Arts in Tokyo. In 1951 he received the Kansai-Shinseisaku award and in 1952 he received the prize of 15 ° Salone Shinseisaku. The following year he moved to Paris and enrolled at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and the Sorbonne, where he studied medieval history and philosophy. In 1953 and 1954 he exhibited at the Salon de l'Art Sacré. He becomes a friend of the critic Michel Tapie and his painting, until then close to Fauvism, turned toward the abstract with the presence of figurative motifs and texts. In 1956 he organized a group exhibition in Japan with Tapié, Sam Francis and Georges Mathieu, which raises the interest for the Art Informel. From 1956 the art dealer Leo Castelli sold his works in New York. He obtained several international successes, such as the Sao Paulo Biennale in 1953 and the Venice Biennale in 1960. In 1962 he obtained the prize of the 5 ° Contemporary Japanese Art Exhibition and the Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo acquired some works. In 1982 he exhibited at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and in 1984 founded the Association grouping the Japanese contemporary artists.