Born in Nagano Prefecture in 1947. Attempting to reconstruct sculpture that had been dismantled in the currents of post-minimalism and mono-ha, he has consistently pursued the principles of sculpture and its structure that lead to the perception of human existence since the 1970s, and has continued to present its essence and potential through practice by creating works of art. After showing a series of conceptual works that attempted to redefine the concept of sculpture, he expanded his experimentation into the Woods series (1984), the From Borders series (1994), and the Minimal Baroque series around 2000, focusing on wood sculptures made with a chainsaw. Since participating in the Venice Biennale in 1988, he has expanded his presentation to international exhibitions and is highly regarded as a leading figure in contemporary Japanese sculpture.

In Twenty-Eight Deaths II, a tense expression is created by applying acrylic paint mixed with ash from burning wood shavings to the multilayered form of countless folds carved by a chainsaw. From this very expression, we can see the structure of a world where life and death are next to each other and sometimes reversed, as Toya says that birth is also “death” from some other state. By carving and engraving the material, Toya gouges out something inherent in the material and reveals what might be called the primordial and fundamental nature of humans and nature.