We wouldn't be here without him. Our life wouldn't be the same without knowing him. He was a potter and he was the reason we came to the island.
Almost ten years have passed since his tragic death, but whenever I look at his works, my mind still goes back to the moments we shared. I particularly remember asking him what matters most to him as an artist. His answer was "singing in my own voice." Undoubtedly, he found his own voice and sang in it in his remarkable creations.
Okinawa is not our native land. My husband and I are both from the mainland Japan and born and bred in its climate and culture, which are quite different from those of Okinawa. But a fateful encounter with the artist, Seisho Kuniyoshi, brought us here a decade ago.
I came to know about Mr. Kuniyoshi in a small magazine article. Even before I finished reading it, I was struck by an overwhelming desire to meet him, a wish that came true a while later. On a beautiful day of July, 1998, we arrived in Okinawa, without knowing the trip would change our life for ever. The moment we set foot on the island, strange nostalgia hit both of us and by the end of the day, we decided to live in Okinawa.
Mr. Kuniyoshi was a gentleman and a man of great sincerity although he was too modest to let people know he was and seemed comfortable with his public image as an eccentric artist. My husband and I admired him for his personality as much as for his genius. We hoped our budding relationship would last long, but after two more visits and several exchanges of letters, he suddenly departed this world.
Almost ten years have passed since his tragic death, but whenever I look at his works, my mind still goes back to the moments we shared. I particularly remember asking him what matters most to him as an artist. His answer was "singing in my own voice." Undoubtedly, he found his own voice and sang in it in his remarkable creations.
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