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"I will pursue my dreams" declaration = A belated start at age 40

The second son, Ricardo, has curious eyes and an energetic way of speaking. When I call him "Señor," he corrects me, saying, "What did you just say? You can just say 'Vocé.'" He's just as lively as Tomie, even as he gets older.

Second son Ricardo

Ricardo seems to think that he "chose to receive a Western education," but he did have the desire to "teach Japanese" to Tomie. "I even arranged to have a private tutor, but when the war started and the use of Japanese was banned, I thought that even if I learned Japanese, I would never use it again," he said.

She chose the school because it was "close, convenient, and had a good reputation," and it was a rational choice, not because she was a Christian. Incidentally, Tomie herself claims to have a "self-religion," saying, "Some people believe in God, but I'm not religious. I think it's okay to believe in yourself."

But in the end, both sons grew up as Brazilians and became just as well-known as their mother as architects and cultural workers.

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"Familiarism is the most important thing in life," she said, and so she chose the path of being a wife and mother and devoted herself to raising her children. However, in 1953, at the age of 40, she finally made a belated start as a painter, which had been her dream.

Tomie, whose passion to become an artist was still burning, ordered magazines such as "Bijutsu Techo" and "Atelier" from Japan every month and read them intently. One day, the Western-style painter Keisuke Kanno (1909-1963) came to visit from Japan and said to her, "Children will grow up even if you leave them alone. Do a job you like." She replied, "That's true," and as if she had had an epiphany, she began to pursue her dream.

At first, she took up her paintbrush under Mr. Kanno's guidance in a room of about 8 tatami mats in her home, together with several other women.

She told Louis, who was 15 years old at the time, and Ricardo, who was not yet 10, "You're older now, so think for yourself and live the way you think is best."

It's essentially a declaration of "I will follow my dreams."

Keisuke Kanno and Tomie

At that time in the Brazilian art world, abstract painting, which had begun in the late 1940s, was gaining momentum. Members of the Japanese-Brazilian art circle "Seibikai" (founded in 1953), to which she had once belonged, began to paint abstract paintings, and artists such as Manabu Mabe and Chikara Fukushima, who had exhibited at the São Paulo Biennial from an early stage, were becoming known as representatives of Brazilian abstract painters.

Following the encouragement of others, she started out with representational paintings, but the reason she quickly moved to abstract paintings was probably due to this background, in addition to her original love of abstract art.

Her second son, Ricardo, was still a small child at the time and still has a vivid memory of his mother heading off to campus.

"Every day, she would set up a tripod, stretch fabric over it, create a canvas in a corner less than two metres in length and width, and then focus on her work. By the time she started painting, countless images were already swirling in her mind. She was also very skilled technically."

Ricardo also had a love of culture since his student days, and was involved in various cultural activities such as creating a newspaper, holding exhibitions and planning literary competitions, and was even elected president of the student council. He started out as a graphic designer, but later held important positions at cultural facilities, including Director of Culture of the Sao Paulo Region, first director of the São Paulo Cultural Center, and director of the Cinemateca Brasileira. His eldest son, Rui, also became a renowned architect representing Brazil.

The blood of the "Haikara-san" (high-collar women) who vigorously emerged from Meiji Japan has been passed down to Terra Rocha.

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*This article is reprinted from the Nikkei Shimbun (November 23, 2013).

© 2013 Nikkey Shimbun