If I am weak / 我弱ければ
Group exhibit “My favorite book, movie, & music”
Oct.10-15, 2022
Gallery Kanon in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, Japan
I chose my favorite book “Ware yowakereba (If I am weak)” by Ayako Miura. It is about the faith life of Kajiko Yajima, an activist in women’s rights movement in the 1870’s. I created these artworks with ink dye and a bamboo stick.
Videos from the exhibit: Instagram Reel 1 & Reel 2
グループ展「私の想い本、映画、音楽」
令和4年10月10〜15日
ギャラリーカノン日本橋
私の好きな本「われ弱ければ」(三浦綾子著)に見える矢嶋楫子のイメージを、染料と竹の棒で描いてみました。
“After her baptism, Kajiko began to blossom into a brilliant educator and social activist. How miserable the women of Japan would have been if the Christian Women’s Organization had not been born!”
「受洗後の揖子は、いよいよ教育者として、さらには社会運動家として、見事な開花を見せていく。。。もし矯風会が生まれなければ、日本婦人たちはどんなに惨めであったろうか。」
Kajiko challenged the values of the Meiji & Taisho eras when women were not respected as human beings. She was not only a strong and highly capable single mother, but also one of the few educated women at the time. It is marvelous to see her walk through unspeakable tribulations of life with her own strength and finally arrive at a humbly worshipful posture that acknowledges God’s power in her weakness. Only then, she was able to do incredible work of justice in society!
Kajiko Yajima’s life mission includes…
first director of a girls' academy,
girls' education,
the women's liberation movement,
the monogamy law,
women’s right to file divorce,
women's suffrage,
prohibition of alcohol,
abolition of prostitution,
first president of the Japan Christian Women's Organization,
appealing for world peace in the US at the age of 90 (traveling by a ship!).
We owe her for our well-being in Japan today. And we still need much more justice & liberation in this male-dominant society.
One of Kajiko’s famous quotes, interpreted by me:
The word for "destiny" is "luck-life," an act of giving one's life to fate.
Dear women, please do not leave your precious lives to chance.
From now on, please live for YOUR mission (not men's).
The word for "mission" is "use-life.
Your life must be used by you (not others)."
After 10 yrs of violence by her alcoholic husband who was a well-respected samurai, she left home with her youngest child. She was the first woman in Japan to request divorce, a disgrace to men. She renamed herself to Kajiko (“kaji” = rudder of a ship), sailed to Tokyo, and became a teacher.
While working in a Christian mission school, she experienced the Gospel and dedicated her life to Japanese women’s independence. As the school principal, she got rid of rules and taught the female students that if you have a Bible, you can govern yourself. And the student tardiness improved dramatically!
Flower mashup
This was born out of “31 days of flowers” when I tried mixing 2 days into 1 drawing. Drawing them became a prayer for harmony instead of polarized division, and for an appreciation of our differences. Some of them look weird but maybe the process towards unity isn’t always pretty?
Campanula / Rose + Carnation / Clematis Duchess of Edinburgh + Nahema rose / Pincushion protea + Chrysanthemum / Celosia + Flannel flower “angel star” / Erindium + Anemone / Bubarrier + Nerine + (green rose?) / Dahlia + Cosmos + Daisy / Spray mum + Lisianthus / Dahlia in 2 stages of blooming
