Born in 1940; the fourth daughter of Idemitsu Sazo, the founder of Idemitsu Kosan. Having attended the elementary, junior high and high schools attached to Ochanomizu University, she enrolled in Waseda University’s First Department of Literature. After graduating, she went to study in New York. She later married abstract painter Sam Francis and had two children. Searching for a means of creative expression transcending her role as wife and mother, Idemitsu set out to become a video artist. On a feminist basis drawn from her own experience, she continues to consider issues such as parents and children in the home and the social friction that results when women live as creators. Her books include What a Woman Made (Iwanami Shoten,Publishers, 2003).