Ariko Inaoka (b. 1975, Kyoto, Japan) moved to the United States at the age of 17 and gained a BFA in photography from Parsons School of Design in New York. After working as a photographer in New York and Tokyo, in 2011 while continuing her personal photography projects, she decided to take over her family business, her ancestral restaurant in Kyoto that has been running since 1465. Her first photo book SOL was published in 2008 by the Japanese house, Akaaka, and her second book Eagle and Raven is published in 2020. Her work has been published by various international media, including the BBC and The Guardian. She lives in Kyoto. She shoot film and make her prints in her darkroom.

In addition to her art, Ariko is the current and sixteenth owner of Honke Owariya, founded in 1465 and the oldest soba restaurant in Kyoto and perhaps the whole of Japan. She follows this tradition from her father, the fifteenth owner, and her grandfather, the fourteenth.

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