Persimmon and Frog: My Life and Art, a Kibei-Nisei's Story of Self-Discovery
By (Author) Fumiko Kimura
Assisted by David Berger
Chin Music Press
Chin Music Press
7th April 2020
United States
General
Non Fiction
History of art
Ethnic studies
Biography: general
Individual architects and architectural firms
Individual photographers
B
Paperback
160
Width 152mm, Height 228mm, Spine 18mm
907g
Written intimately and in the first person, Persimmon and Frog reveals a less familiar story from World War II. Born in America to immigrant farmers, Kimura was visiting Japan as a 10-year-old when the US entered the war. She was stranded in Japan and spent her preteen and adolescent years in that foreign country, an American who looked completely Japanese. She went to school, absorbing Japanese aesthetics and the solace of art making. After the war, Kimura returned to the US. Relearning English, she graduated college and became a research chemist. In her forties, married with a family, she left that career and pursued her passion for painting with watercolor, sumi ink, and acrylics. She studied Western art at university, but later focused on the Japanese brush and ink on paper. She would eventually help found Puget Sound Sumi Artists. Kimura is now an influential and respected artistic figure in the Pacific Northwest, and she continues to paint and exhibit. Part memoir and part artistic survey, this book takes Kimura's writings, diaries, and interviews, and traces her artistic development from early watercolors of Tacoma's industrial waterfront to recent calligraphic paintings that poignantly engage Eastern and Western influences. The book deftly profiles both her personal life and artistic aspirations, telling a story of profound resilience, independence, and artistic accomplishment.
Fumiko Kimura is a sumi painter and founder of Puget Sound Sumi Artists. She lives in Tacoma, WA. David Berger is an author, artist, and former visual arts critic for the Seattle Times. He lives in Seattle.