Tamzo was born in Kamakura-city, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan and later graduated high school in 1990. During the spring holidays just before entering college, she visited a temple in Kagoshima for the first time with her relatives. The small temple in the mountain, named Yoe-an, was a foothold for the members working to reconstruct Chingoku-ji, a Buddhist temple of the Shingon Esoteric sect, which had been destroyed in the early years of the Meiji era (approximately 140 years ago) as a result of a movement to abolish Buddhism by Imperial loyalists. As a typical 18-year-old youth of that time, she denied neither Buddhism nor the traditional Shinto gods of Japan and made the occasional customary visits to family tombs and to Shinto shrines on New Year. However on her first visit to this temple, she felt something special when she first met the high priest of the temple, commonly referred to in Japan as Osho-san (honorable high priest). She spent several days with the people of the temple community, all of whom had come from various places, but the temple community had the feeling of a big family. They lived together with Osho-san and had a strong determination to reconstruct the temple Chingoku-ji. Included among the temple family were many animals that were more than mere animals but friends and members of the community as well. She had never experienced such a joyful time and those days consequently had a lasting impact on her life. She subsequently entered college and worked hard day after day in her studies. However, she become frustrated over time as she began to feel that the days were simply passing away without meaning or purpose. At the age of 20, only one year away from graduation, she visited the temple Yoe-an again with a desire to change herself. That was the beginning of her life at the temple. She learned many things including traditional Japanese culture, human relationships, formal Japanese manners, cooking, and many other things while in the midst of the busy daily work schedule that included the physical labor of the reconstruction of Chingoku-ji, kitchen duties, laundry duties, and taking care of the animals. The experiences of temple life become her foundation. She never compromises. She faces every matter wholeheartedly. Her temple foundation shows in her art. She may redraw one line hundreds of times, making changes of no greater than one millimeter until she becomes completely satisfied. She also became interested in the healing principles of acupuncture as a result of her life at the temple and went on to become an acupuncturist out of a desire to help others through that traditional healing art. She entered Kagoshima Acupuncture School in 1993, the oldest acupuncture school in Japan. She graduated in 1996 and obtained a license as a practitioner of acupuncture, moxibustion and massage. Following the start of her career in acupuncture, the turning point toward art came to her suddenly. One day Osho-san glanced at a letter she was writing to a friend that included some cute illustrations and he noticed the drawings right away. He was so impressed by the illustrations that he told her she should become a professional illustrator. Osho-san then gave her the name Tamzo, meaning treasure chest from which many dreams flow out endlessly. Thus, Tamzo the Illustrator was born. She immediately began the self-study of paintings and today, with her wholeheartedness, natural artistic sense and deep insight, Tamzo displays her talent and offers her dreams to all who view them.