Shimabuku never stops to organize stories when observations of an unusual poetic quality are apparent. In 2000 for instance, he went to Akashi, the Tokyo fish market. Once there, he purchased a little octopus and took it on a train across Japan to return it to its natural environment. In his search for new values in his daily life, Shimabuku’s work unfurls with simple and visual ideas, at times surreal, that are thoroughly carried out and researched.

When he came to Bordeaux, he got interested in a special and genuinely Bordeaux dish : the lamprey. On several occasions, he took an inventory of the common uses made by distant cultures, without drawing any similarities from it. Thus, Japan has now become the other country to eat lamprey.

He lives and works in Berlin. He is represented in France by Air de Paris, Paris.