GREYZONE Art between Shadow and Light
Introduced in the magazines:
Painter/Author from Tokio/Japan based in Germany
The reason why I wanted to become an artist was highly unromantic. I worked in an office where I could no longer see my colleague’s faces.
"How can I get out of here? As a child I liked to write stories and paint...''
Little by little, various themes and motifs came to my mind.
1. When I was longing for a profound change, the butterfly came into my life.
So I started to paint butterflies. The caterpillar goes through 4 stages of change before it spreads its beautiful wings. Therefore it is considered as the symbol for transformation. But how does a profound change in life come about?
2. Change from inside to outside
I always waited for something to change on the outside. In Vain. Only when I started changing my inner world my outer circumstances started to transform. The outer world was a reflection of my inner world.
3. Death, the greatest gift?
During this time three of my close relatives died. To get over it, I reconsidered on my views on death. In our society people tend to look at death through a negative image. But many near-death experiencers describe death as a beautiful experience. Can’t we find the chance to value our lives through death?
After that I wrote my book 'Thank You, Life, Thank You, Death' where I describe the healing process of my relationship to death.
"What do you see as the positive aspects of death?" I was asked in a magazine interview.
My answer: "I would like to address the issue of racism because I have experienced a lot of racism.
We are all born naked and leave everything behind when we die.
Then you realize: It makes no sense to judge people by their skin color or nationality.''
4. Compassion is the key
In the companies where I worked, I had to listen to insults like:
"I can't pronounce your name. Can't I just call you by your first letters?''
"You're just an Asian woman. I can harass you.''
"You immigrant sister.''
As soon as you try to defend yourself, you were stamped as emotional, unprofessional, and difficult. In addition I wanted to avoid conflicts at the place where you earn a living. So I suppressed my feelings "It is my fault that I can’t get by." That's why I found it hard to breathe.
In this time, when you can get information quickly, I value listening to each other's stories instead of judging too fast.
In my opinion the key to a society free from discrimination is: compassion. Compassion is the understanding for the other people’s story. Or maybe it is the realization that you can’t understand certain things you have not experienced. But nevertheless we can build together a future where everyone get the same chances and respect.
That is why my novels are characterized by vivid imagery and all my paintings are based on a story.
Stories don't condemn. Stories do not impose a point of view.
Isn't life like a story that makes sense in the end?
Publications& Exhibitions
:Exhibitions & Publications
August 2019: Short story 'The Snow White-Complex‘ was selected for the anthology for the publisher Arcanum Fantasy and was published in the book 'Im Bann der Seelendämmerung'
October 2019: Poem 'The faith' was selected by the judge of the Bubenreuther Litereature Competition
July 2020: Solo-Exhibition Paintings and Photos in the gallery of the Police Department Mettmann
April 2020: Novel 'Danke Leben, Danke Tod' was published through the publisher United p.c.
September 2021: Oil painting 'Longing for diversity' was selected in the design competition for street art and was exhibited in the gallery 'Clowns&Pferde'
November 2021: Reading about novels and paintings in an event organized by the German Japanese Society Hannover and Bookstore Marktkirche
February-May 2022: Solo-Exhibition Anti-War Museum, Berlin
August 2022: Solo-Exhibition 'Return to the childlike happyiness' within the event Kunstpunkte(artpoints) organized by the cultural council.
August 2023: Solo-Exhibition, Art gallery Lotus, Düsseldorf
Scholarships & Memberships
June 2018: Scholarship from the International Theater-Festival 'Luaga&Losna' in Austria.
September 2021: Project support through a scholarship of the ministry of culture and science
Language skills:
German: native speaker/ Japanese: native speaker/ English: fluent/ French: contractual level