The sheltered daughter, who stubbornly refused to be disciplined, remained eccentric even as she reached school age.
It was an era when girls were expected to play with marbles, beanbags, and house-playing. However, Ms. Osawa showed no interest in such "girly" games.
The common belief was that girls loved dolls dressed in pretty clothes. Perhaps hoping that she would become "A little more like a girl," her parents took her to a large toy store, intending to buy her an expensive doll. But Ms. Osawa would only shake her head, saying,
"I don't want it!"
Search the room as you might, you wouldn't find a single item associated with a girl.
What she had instead were tools: pliers, nippers, screwdrivers, files, drills, bolts, nuts, nails…
"I used to collect things like that and build buildings and bridges. Maybe it was like playing with LEGOs today? Or perhaps I intended to become an architect."
She had almost no female friends.
"Kiyomi-chan, let's play!"
The ones who came calling were only boys. After being called out to play, Ms. Osawa would return home after sunset, covered in mud.
"I was playing baseball with everyone."
There was another thing that the young Ms. Osawa was passionate about: painting. It is unclear when or what triggered her to start drawing. But once she was old enough to know her own mind, whenever she had free time, she would pull out drawing paper and set her pencils and crayons in motion.
In those days, the Osawa household had many live-in students (shosei).
"Kiyomi-chan, you draw very well. You seem to like drawing. Alright, I'll teach you so you can get even better."
One of the students said this to her when she was five or six years old.
"I wonder if he wasn't a student attending the Tokyo University of the Arts."
He taught her the basics of sketching. He explained the techniques of perspective in a way that was easy to understand. He taught her that there is light in nature; that how light hits depends on various conditions such as the season, location, and time; that when light hits, a shadow is cast on the opposite side; that shadows can be distinct, faint, short, or long; and that carefully capturing these elements adds depth to a painting…
"Kiyomi-chan, let's go sketching today."
When the weather was nice, the two of them would go to a nearby park or mountain to paint landscapes.
From a young age, she received direct instruction from a semi-professional. In today's terms, it was an elite education. Perhaps that was the result: she won countless awards for her paintings after entering elementary school.
"But I never drew exactly as the teacher said. I hated being forced into a fixed mold, so my paintings were always in my own style. That's why I was always getting scolded."
No matter what anyone said, she stubbornly stuck to her own convictions.
To avoid getting scolded, you should do this; to benefit yourself, you must do that; don't do this, don't say that. Such worldly wisdom is still absent from Ms. Osawa even today. In any case, she believes in herself, doing what she wants to do and what she thinks she must do. She says what she wants to say and what she thinks she must say.
Joining boys in baseball, building structures with bolts and nuts, and continuing to draw in her own style without listening to her teachers.
"Kiyomi, if you keep this up, you won't be able to get married."
Her parents reprimanded her more times than she could count. She did wonder if that was true, but Ms. Osawa never turned the steering wheel of her life in the direction her parents told her to.
Her own style. The soul of a three-year-old still pulses powerfully within Ms. Osawa today.
Kiyomi Osawa Gallery
For a while, we will continue to feature animal embroidery paintings. Ms. Osawa must really love living creatures. Unfortunately, the animal embroidery paintings introduced from here on have no titles. Please think about what titles would be appropriate for them.
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