VietNamNet Bridge – “I like the warmness, the enthusiasm of Vietnamese people, and I decided to stay in this land,” said female Japanese painter Takeo Akiko, who recently had her first painting exhibition named “Vietnam – The Land I Love” in Hanoi from September 13-16.

Akiko and her paintings.

The exhibition showed the view of a Japanese woman who loves Vietnam to Japanese and the world. Twenty-nine paintings feature beautiful countryside landscapes and friendliness connected with nature in Bao Loc, Can Tho, Nam Dinh, Ninh Binh, as well as streets filled with vibrant daily life in Hanoi and HCM City.

Before being held in Hanoi, the exhibition was organised at the Green Space Gallery in HCM City and it will be travelling to Japan.

In 2006, she displayed 31 paintings about Vietnam, the homeland of her husband, in Japan and all of the paintings were sold after the exhibition. Takeo Akiko only uses water-colours in her works.

Born in Yokohama, Japan, Takeo Akiko loved drawing and wanted to become a painter when she was small. Over ten years ago, she decided to travel to Southeast Asia. She said to herself, “I have been to the US, Europe, and Central Africa; why don’t I travel to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, which are very near from Japan?” And she travelled to Vietnam in 1996, at the age of 26, and the trip changed her life.

Being familiar with the life of a traveller, Akiko worked hard to earn her living everywhere she went. In Israel, she worked as a volunteer, a nurse in Greece, a waiter, etc. When she came to Vietnam, Akiko felt one thing that she hadn’t for a long time – the warmness and enthusiasm of people. She fell in love with Vietnam.

“I love Hanoi where I see my Japan of the old times when its identities were not infringed by modernity and development and a Vietnamese man clang me,” Akiko said fluently in Vietnamese.

She learnt Vietnamese for six months, stayed in Hanoi for two years and then got married to her Vietnamese teacher in Hanoi in 1998. The couple moved to HCM City one year later. They have three sons, named Minh Tuan, Minh Tu and Tuan Anh.

In 2003, while reading a book by famous Japanese painter Nagasawa, her dream of being a painter was re-awakened. She then had many meetings with the well-known painter. Her works are often posted in the Sketch and VinaBoo magazines published in Vietnam since 2006.

In September 2006, Yokohama hosted an Akiko exhibition entitled “Beautiful Scenes I Saw in Vietnam”. 29 of the 31 displayed works feature Hoi An, Vung Tau and several of Vietnam’s rivers and seas were sold.

Her blog is full of paintings which help Japanese people learn more about Vietnam and find it more accessible and very beautiful. “Previously, they did not know much about Vietnam. Now, they want to travel to Vietnam,” said Akiko.

“In my mind, I never thought that I would have had a chance to send to Hanoians my feelings. Housework, my children and extra jobs took all of my time,” Akiko said at the opening ceremony of her exhibition in Hanoi.

But annually, she travels 1-2 times to various areas in Vietnam, each trip is 3 days only to get inspiration for her works. When she was single, she went to Mai Chau, Sapa and after marriage she went to Ninh Binh, Lao Cai and Lam Dong. Every Tet (lunar New Year) Festival, Akiko and her family visit her husband’s parents in the north.

Everyday, when her husband and children leave home, Akiko draws paintings based on sketches she made during her field trips. Her works are collected and introduced gradually on VinaBOO, a monthly magazine which is distributed free at hotels, restaurants, apartment buildings, and flights, with 10,000 copies/issue.

Photographer Vu Ngoc Phan said Vietnamese popular landscapes look poetic and different in Aikiko’s paintings. In recent years, she has drawn paintings for printing on calendars of Wendy Travel Company. Thus, she has introduced Vietnamese landscapes to the world.

Akiko plans to gather all of her paintings in a book named “Vietnam Tourism Handbook by Takeo Akiko’s Paintings”.

(Source: TP)