Born in Yamagata, Japan, in 1926, Azuma grew up in a family of bronze artisans. In 1943, during the Second World War, he joined the Japanese Navy air corps in the Maizuru division. The collapse of the war, along with the radical transformation of Japanese society and the dissolution of its former value system, marked a decisive rupture in his youth. In this context, Azuma turned to art, later stating that he sought in it a way to find meaning, continuity, and a renewed relationship between tradition and the future.
In 1949, he enrolled at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (Geidai), graduating in 1953. In 1956, he moved to Milan and entered the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera. There he met Marino Marini, whom he became assistant to after completing his studies in 1960. This relationship marked a decisive phase in his training, while also confirming his commitment to sculpture as a direct confrontation with his Japanese origins.
In Milan, Azuma gradually moved away from his initial academic production and, around 1960, began a radical redefinition of his practice. He initiated the MU (無) series, which would become central to his entire career. These works emerged from a reflection on "unconstructed beauty" as something rooted in Japanese sensibility. The MU bas-reliefs established a language in which sculpture is reduced to essential structures, where the transformation of matter - rust, erosion, layering - becomes a fundamental expressive element.
In 1964, Azuma met the gallerist Bruno Lorenzelli, with whom he developed a long standing friendship and professional collaboration. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, his work gained increasing international recognition through exhibitions in Europe, Japan, and the United States, particularly in major group shows dedicated to contemporary Japanese artists abroad. In 1965, he was invited to the International Sculpture Symposium at California State University in Long Beach, where he created the work MU-464, and participated in the group exhibition Japanese New Paintings and Sculptures at the San Francisco Museum of Art, which later toured seven other museums across the United States, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1966. In 1971, his sculpture Croce (Cross) entered the collections of the Vatican Museums at
the initiative of Pope Paul VI.
From the 1980s onward, Azuma combined artistic practice with teaching, serving as professor of sculpture and goldsmithing at the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan. After the death of Marino Marini in 1980, he also contributed to the creation of the Marino Marini Museum in Florence and the foundation in Pistoia. His practice continued to evolve through a sustained exploration of opposing yet complementary states, particularly the concepts of MU (emptiness) and YU (fullness). During these decades, he produced numerous public commissions in Italy and Japan and was the subject of major solo exhibitions and retrospectives in Europe and Japan.
Widely recognized as a cultural bridge between Japan and Italy, Azuma received numerous distinctions, including his election to the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca in Rome in 1993, the Shijūhōshō medal in 1995, and the Kunyontō Kyokujitsush (Order of the Rising Sun) in 2001, awarded by the Emperor of Japan in recognition of his artistic contribution to the country's
cultural prestige.
His later years were marked by major installations, exhibitions, and commissions, notably for the Vatican Museums, the Museo Novecento in Milan, and various public spaces in Italy and Japan. He remained active until his death in Milan in October 2016.