Emi HIRAI was born in Yamaga City, Kumamoto, Japan in 1964.  She spent her childhood in Yamaga until she was 15, and graduated from Kyushu Jyogakuin High School and Fukuoka Women's College.  Then, she worked as a banker in Kumamoto for 4 years.  In June 1988, she quitted her job and went to Brighton in the UK for studying English for half a year, then went to London.  There, she was very attracted by European antique jewelries.  From 1990, she took a course of Art & Design in London Guildhall University, majored in Printmaking.  During she was an art student, she worked for a gallery, a travel agent, and taught Japanese language for business men.  In 1993, she prepared her portfolio as a printmaking artist in London Kensington & Chelsea College.  During this period, she found her color very Japanese into her work, and she came back to Japan, in order to learn Japanese painting Nihonga technique.  She continued to work on her self project related to nature at Printmaking studio in Machida International Print Museum, and working in a public relations department at a foreign affiliated company in Tokyo.   Together with her printmaking work, she started to try harmonizing printing with Nihonga materials such as iwaenogu pigment, nikawa medium and washi papers.  In September 1999, she turned to a professional artist concentrating on her printing work.  In April 21, 1999, she established her own printmaking studio and gallery in her home town, Yamaga City, Kumamoto.  October 10, 2001, the printmaking studio was changed to "MOON ART Gallery" with an oil painting artist, MORITA Kimihiro.  She was firstly attracted by Japanese Nature, and human figures, but now she likes to work more on definite shapes and landscapes rather than abstract images from her mind.  She is now interested in ancient and Romanesque churches in Europe.  In 2007, the gallery moved to Chiba, near Tokyo, named "Galleria ASSISI.. From 2009, she teaches woodcut printing in Reitaku Campus Plaza in Kashiwa city. In May 2017, the gallery moved to Yamaga City, Kumamoto.　She is a Christian ( Roman Catholic Church in Yamaga city affiliation Laity ).