Born in Tokyo, Hiroko Imada studied at the Tokyo Zokei University and later at the Slade School of Fine Art (University College London). Her degree show in 1992 caught the attention of The Times art critic David Cohen, who described her work as ‘heralding an impressive new talent’. In 1992, Imada was awarded the British Council Fellowship for her achievements at the Slade. She is now based in London.

From her early youth, Imada’s favoured subjects have been ‘Nature’ and ‘Dance and Movement’, and although she likes to work in various different media such as printmaking, painting, and site specific installation, a strong sense of continuity runs through all her works.

She has exhibited throughout Europe and Japan, and a number of her exhibitions have been featured at Japan-related events and in the official magazine of the Embassy of Japan. Her solo exhibition in 2013 at the Riverside Studios Gallery in London, for example, was part of the ‘Japan 400’ event which celebrated the 400th anniversary of Japanese-British relations.
Her solo exhibition in 2015 was produced by the Children’s Art Centre Pessi, in Vantaa, Finland, and was broadcast by Yle TV News. Her print works have been featured in the prestigious Saatchi Art Online collection.
In 2015 she was commissioned by the British luxury phone manufacturer Vertu to produce an art work for their new phone, Aster Yosegi Wood (made in a limited edition of 50). The whole process of creation was filmed and used for the advertising campaign.
In 2017, Imada created a giant paper wave interactive installation work at the Great Court of the British Museum as a part of 'Hokusai, beyond the Great Wave’ exhibition official event - Hokusai: Making Waves.
In 2019, she was comissioned by Universal Pictures to create a painting for a specific scene and her painting appears in the film “Fast and Furious 9” which was premired in June 2021.
In 2021, Imada created an iinstallation work at The Wave Coventry and an interactive installation work with pupils in Coventry at the Coventry Cathedral as a part of the event of Japan-UK Season of Culture.
In the same year, she was commissioned by the British Museum to create a woodblock print inspired by Hokusai’s drawing and its process was recorded to create a film to run at the exhibition ‘Hokusai: The Great Picture Book of Everything’ from 30 September 2021 to January 2022 at the British Museum.
In 2022, she has created a Japanese woodblock print in colour inspired by one of the piece from the Royal Collection and its process was filmed and presented at 'Japan: Courts and Culture' exhibition from 8 April 2022 to 26 February 2023 at the Miller Learning Room, The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace. The film was also used for the multimedia guide at the exhibition.
Most recently in November 2022, the British shoe brand Dr. Martens commissioned to create a woodblock print of their new product logo “Dr. Martens X The Met" (Hokusai), and its process filmed at her studio. Imada herself appears in their promotion film.

Imada also specialises in teaching Japanese woodblock printing, papermaking, folded screen making, and hanging scroll making. In 2000 she established the Japanese woodblock printing course at the British Museum and in 2017 at the Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts, and has been teaching it in both organizations regularly since then. She has taught Japanese art related workshops at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin each year since 2008.

Imada has works in the collections of the Vantaa Art Museum, Finland; the Youth Foundation, Oporto, Portugal; the British School in Rome, Italy; Berlin City Library, Germany; Children and Youth Art Library, Germany; Central Japan Railway Company, Japan; Tokyo Electric Power Company; Nisshinbo Trade Union, Japan; University College London, UK; Telehouse London, UK; as well as many other public and private collections.