Vietnamese scenes rekindle Japanese creativity  Makeshift houses along the When Mika Toba visited One of the Japanese artists who’s introduced But, she always felt something was missing. “I wondered if it was still suitable to use the patterns these days. So I wanted to find something new. “At that time I felt as if I had a mission to introduce a new style into katazome to inspire the next generations.” The artist finally found that missing piece in “I was attracted by the colorful Vietnamese scenes, so I sketched them and felt they were suitable for katazome.” Since then the artist, now 52, has regularly visited Vietnam and captured daily scenes across the country in her works: from an electrical post where numerous wires thickly tangle with each other, a railway track that goes by old houses, a part of canal with make-shift houses along its sides, to a corner of Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi, and the boats on the Saigon River where people live and work. “Every scene in They reminded her of Japanese landscapes during the 1950s-1960s. “I always feel homesick whenever I see rivers and fields in Toba said during her trips, she felt that Over more than 50 trips, she created several dozen works that have been featured at five Vietnam-themed exhibitions organized in both Art critic Phan Cam Thuong once wrote in the Saigon Tiep Thi newspaper that many Vietnamese artists who have created works on their home country have expressed their admiration for the Japanese artist’s deep cultural affinity for She could “read” a story behind each scene and see its “unknown” future, Thuong wrote.
However, Toba’s works never feature people, because she believes that if she does so, the longevity of her works would be limited by the short life of human beings. But this belief does not stop her from finding inspiration in Vietnamese people she meets. “Whenever I visit She said when she visited villages in the countryside, residents would offer her a stool to sit or a cup of tea upon seeing her sketching. People who live on boats along the “It is impossible to love a country other than your home country without loving that country’s people. And, I felt Vietnamese are very close. Their acts of kindness inspired me to create more,” she said. Toba’s latest exhibition “Sceneries remain – forever in one’s soul” is now open at the Fine Arts Museum of HCMC with 31 of her works on display, including three latest ones of the My Son Sanctuary in the central province of Quang Nam that she created early this year. Toba, who was born in She said after the tragedy, she and many other Japanese artists wondered if it was right for them to create works while their people and country were suffering, but then they felt that their works could provide some spiritual support for the victims. “For me, My Son is a holy place where people can offer prayers that are not restricted by time or space,” she said. “I have been to many countries, but only in Now a professor at But, there is one thing she is certain about: “Had I not discovered Vietnamese sceneries, I would have not been able to continue being creative.”
By Thanh Nguyen, Thanh Nien News |
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