I still got Sendai on my mind.

 

Having spent three years of my life in Sendai, Japan as an artist, a father/babysitter, an art lecturer, a traveler documenting my experiences in my journals, i now feel like all those years seems forever gone without any trace. However when i browse through one of my sketch journals of Sendai, of which I have three, and when I look at the pictures of my two children and their mother seeming happy most of the time, I realize that no, the three years spent in Japan is still alive in me for it was my intention to begin with in keeping and on going journal of my life so as to keep some form of legacy for my children to look back upon as to their past, which in this case was a rich one. My two children spent their preschool years at the Mukaiyama Yochien or Kindergarten one of the most prestigious, sought after schools for preschoolers and we lived a walking distance from the school on the top floor of a five story building called the Dia Palace over looking a panoramic view the whole area from the ocean on one end to the hills on the other of the Sendai City landscape. Within walking distance up the hill was the Yasoen or the natural plants garden and next to it the Sendai TV Stations with the tall towers that lit up at night in multiple colors according to the weather. No, the three years I spent in Sendai was in fact a major turning point in my life and that of my family, it was a time when I was able to stay more or less 0ore focused at what I was doing albeit in doing my art or taking care of the kids while my late wife goes off to teach; I had take my responsibilities more seriously as I had to face a more challenging environment to raise my children; living among the Japanese was no walk in the park.

In Sendai my creative energy was it highest form as I found the space to do my work at the Miyagi Museum of Fine Arts where they had an open studio policy in order to encourage the people of Sendai into enjoying making art. The facility had four large studios catering to the various main artistic mediums like sculpture, photography, print making, painting and so forth and along with it they had four instructors to assist one with any need. It was the most impressive set up i have ever had the opportunity to be a part of for three years without having to pay a cent for all the time and space I spent there.

I met many local artists and shared my knowledge with them whenever I can as my Japanese was as good as my French but I learned to communicate with with less verbal and more action. I also learned from artist friends  that they were housewives and learned about their daily lives and how they cope with raising kids and enjoying their favorite pastime like making art. Nowhere have i come across the creative arts being so much appreciated and expressed than while living in Sendai. 

I met a few foreign artists who like me dropped in one day and stayed on till it was time to move on like Mr. Pimenta who was from Brazil and married to a Local. He traveled to Mongolia and studied the Mongolian technique of 'Mandala Painting'. The technique was a very delicate form that uses water color which in itself is not and easy medium to master, Pimenta was a very patient artist if i ever met one.

 

One of my 'Mono Prints' done at the Miyagi Museum of Fine Arts, Sendai, Japan. 1976.

I got to learn a great deal about myself and what I was capable of if I set my mind to it like having six solo art exhibition at a few of the Sendai City Art Galleries including the Miyagi Museum Art Gallery itself. I also realized that I had to rein in my desires especially towards the opposite sex while living in Sendai where it almost seems like everyone knows who you are even if you yourself don't. I learned to listen more than let my thoughts be exposed too much. I found the Japanese were most ready to help you if you know how to ask. The most important lesson I learned was to keep my ego in its proper place all the time for the Japanese I found were good at reading you or where you are coming from, genuine or fake.