1980
Born on November 7 in Takasaki, Gunma, Japan.
1998
Made her debut in an audition program on Nippon Cultural Broadcasting.
2002
Hitomi declared herself the first “NENDOL” in history, adopting the title from the fusion of “nendo” (meaning clay) and “idol".
She did her first clay works exhibition at a gallery in Omotesando, Tokyo, and the exhibition set a new record for the gallery visitors.
2010
The number of parents and children who attended her workshops reached 20,000. Hitomi studied education at university
2011
Hitomi visited the disaster-stricken area and hospitals to do volunteer activities after the Great East Japan Earthquake.
She established “Clay Day” on September 1 every year (the numbers “901” are pronounced as "Ku-re-i" in Japanese) and the day has been registered by the Japan Anniversary Association.
2012
NENDOL's 10th anniversary exhibition was held.
Her clay work appeared in a leaflet of the world' s beloved and renowned “Play-Doh" clay.
2013
Hitomi performed to an educational TV program on NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation).
2014
The Traditional Chinese version of her book was published in Taiwan.
She supervised the product, “Play-Doh Starter Set” (Japanese edition).
2015
Hitomi started to write articles regularly for the magazines of KADOKAWA.
She visited New York to observe art education programs and held clay workshops in English.
In November, she was invited by Indonesia Comic Con in Jakarta as a special guest.
2016
Since 2016, she has designed yearly mascot characters of a fortune cat and oriental zodiac of the year that are attached to New Year's rice cakes made by Echigo Seika, Co., Ltd.
2017
Hitomi appeared on the NHK's special stage with popular characters and it drew tens of thousands of audiences.
Her 5 clay works were shown at the “Arcimboldo” exhibition in National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo.
The clay work “giant squid” was shown at the exhibition in In National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo.
In October, a clay picture book was published through the first collaboration with Satoshi Iriyama.
In November, Hitomi had her exhibition in commemoration of NENDOL's 15th anniversary.
2018
More than 10 thousand visitors came out to see her exhibition at Postal Museum Japan.
She regularly held “Science Clay Workshops” with Prof. Katsuhiko Shirahige of Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, the Univ. of Tokyo.
She delivered a successful presentation, “Nendo and Being a Weirdo” as a guest speaker for TEDXGKA. (*The first full English TEDx event in Japan)
2019
Hitomi introduced how to make clay works in a childcare magazine from April.
International tie-up with an academic conference in Vienna. Her clay work inspired by “chromosome” was featured in an advertising poster and website of EMBO.
Published 3 new clay craft books.
Participated in the 1st Nippon Matsuri in Los Angeles.
2020
Produced a beverage product and designed its 3 different packages.
Launched a lightweight clay product “Oh! Nendo” with the improved user-friendly package.
2021
Hitomi was featured in the cultural section of the Nikkei newspaper.
Made clay works based on a folk tale for a children's magazine.
2022
Start playing a new character “Koneru” as well as the popular character “Onendo Onesan” in the NHK's TV shows.
A solo exhibition celebrating NENDOL's 20th anniversary at Omotesando Hills.
2023
Over 100,000 people have attended the clay workshops to date.
Became a one-day police chief in Hachioji City, leading an anti-fraud campaign.
2024
Supervised clay art for the cake cookbook published by Fujiya.
Toured Japan with NHK stage shows.
2025
Hosted a Science Clay Workshop at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, one of the world’s leading research-led medical universities.
Since September, collaborating with the Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, The University of Tokyo, to visualize each laboratory’s research theme through clay art.
Served as a final judge for the 50th Japan Post Idea Piggy Bank Contest.
The 15th solo exhibition, from December 2025 to January 2026.
