Jay’s painting of Hope

Today we met with Jay Horinouchi, a Nikkei artist from Los Angeles who came to Japan to inspire himself more in Japan for his art, but encountered the 3.11 earthquake like all of us here in Tokyo. Since then, he started going frequently as a Disaster Relief Volunteer to different parts of Northeastern Japan with the GAKUVO project which we are supporting.

For more info on volunteer activities, CLICK HERE

On every mission that he went, he felt more strongly that this is was a long fight for Tohoku and that he had the need to keep on helping out.

After a few months, now he has become a coordinator for GAKUVO, coordinating teams of 20 or more Japanese and international volunteers in Kesennuma.

As an artist, he is in search of ways on how to support his now friends and family in Kesennuma, through art as well. That is why we have invited him as one of the speakers of the next NYN Summit Japan 2011 at the ends of this month, to tell us about his experience, search for more international volunteers, and to have a workshop related to the disaster relief projects.

We met today, so I could finally receive a painting that I bought in one of his exhibitions. This is a painting he made with red paint that he found in Iwate, and painted “rubble” or somebody’s treasure on it. I normally don’t buy art, but this time, I could not resist, this painting, along with all the other ones that he exhibited, has a strong message. For me, this symbolizes the pain that the people living in Northeast Japan are experiencing, and also the battle that they have to endure to once again, make this whole area lively and safe.

Thank you Jay, and see you on the next trip to Kesennuma. We have put this painting in the entrance of our office so everyone gets reminded that this disaster is not over until all are back living happily as they were before 3.11