Just once in her long career as a painter has, Toba Mika felt truly stuck.

Up until the early 90s, Mika, from the Japanese city of Aichi, was busy painting
flowers and plants. Then she ran out of ideas.

“It seemed that I was finished as an artist. Then I came to Viet Nam and this
country’s beauty opened up a whole new world for me.”

Viet Nam was a kind of miracle for Mika and has provided constant inspiration
ever since her first visit in 1994.

The artist, who studied in Kyoto and currently works as professor at the Kyoto
Seika University of Arts, has since returned to Viet Nam every year, visiting
different regions of the country to create her art.

Prompted by her love of Viet Nam, she has created over 100 paintings depicting
the country’s development. Many of those scenes she painted were later to
disappear and this makes the artist nostalgic.

“The beauty of Viet Nam’s landscapes has always attracted me. The simple daily
life of the people and the changes taking place in a developing country are what
I could not find in Japan. It is Viet Nam’s beauty that makes me revisit the
images of a vanished Japan.”

Mika specialises in katazome paintings. This is a Japanese method where fabrics
are dyed using a resistant paste applied through a stencil.

She uses silk made using Japan’s traditional techniques and her colours are also
meticulously produced. These materials preserve the paintings, as does Japan’s
relatively dry climate.

The katazome tradition has a long history in Japan. It is one of the most
intricate design techniques in the world and combines design eloquence with the
extraordinary artistic skill of Japanese craft people.

Katazome was originally used for the costumes of kyogen, a Japanese classical
performing art, and the technique became even more popular in the Edo period,
when commoners adopted it for their own clothing.

This uniquely Japanese tradition mixes many elegant Japanese design elements
including flowers, birds, animals and legends.

In Japan, people are worried about the decline of the katazome art form.
According to Mika, the number of artisans producing the rice-glue and paper
essential to katazome is smaller than ever. She is one among the few artists
trying to preserve the art.

“Traditionally, the katazome technique was used to dye kimonos, but people now
do it another way. The other problem is that kimonos are easily damaged. The
colours last longer in my paintings.”

Katazome art and the Vietnamese landscape are constantly changing. Painting is
the way Mika protects and holds onto what she loves.

In her katazome work, Mika draws landscapes only. She explains that it is not
always necessary to have a person in a painting. It’s enough to have laundry
hanging to dry by a window, a bicycle left leaning by a wall or a randomly
placed chair to suggest the presence of people and life.

“Besides, the landscapes in Viet Nam are spectacular. Each scene is vivid enough
without the appearance of a person.”

All of Mika’s artworks are on a large scale. This stems from the screen painting
tradition in Japan.

“One can use these paintings as curtains. I want my paintings to be more useful
than a normal painting hung on a wall. It makes my paintings more immediate to
the public.”

Mika has returned to Viet Nam this time to showcase 35 paintings featuring its
landscapes as well as several images of Japan’s Nara City. The exhibition,
entitled Nara and Ha Noi – Connection of Eternal Capitals celebrates the 1,000th
anniversary of Ha Noi and 1,300 years of the ancient capital of Nara. She hopes
to bring the cities closer through katazome.

This is Mika’s fourth exhibition in Viet Nam. The first was in 2003. She has
also showed in HCM City, and the central city of Hue city.

This special exhibition doesn’t just contain works showing a changing Viet Nam.
There are also new works dealing with the Japanese city of Nara.

“As I walked through the mountain and fields in Nara, I had strange feelings of
deja vu. The scenery of Viet Nam came back to me,” she says.

Speaking about her paintings, Mika said that each painting had a life of its
own.

“I love them all. However, there are some paintings I do love more. Japanese
Street is one of those. I painted it in the central city of Hoi An. This work
demonstrates the cultural exchange and friendship between our two countries.”

Tran Khanh Chuong, chairman of Viet Nam Fine Arts Association said that the
strength of her work lay in the structured quality of the building she depicted.

“The buildings, bridges and ships which are drawn to dominate the entire screen
create a robust quality of form and have a distinct presence for the viewer.”

Mika herself speak fondly of the country which has been the source of so much
inspiration.

“Viet Nam is safe and the people are very hospitable. Whenever I venture out to
remote villages throughout the country, I’m warmly received even though I don’t
know the language,” she says. “Once, a taxi driver thought that I was a
Vietnamese.”

“Viet Nam is also a promising country with a young population, I hope you will
preserve and develop the time-honoured traditional culture of the ancestors,”
she adds.

Several years ago, when Mika visited Hue City to paint Early Morning Hue, she
met an 85-year-old sitting near an old bridge. Mika returned the following year
and the year after that. The old woman was still there, looking not a day older.

“She is always happy to see me again and I am happy to see her as well. She has
invited me to her house to drink tea many times,” says Mika. “And although
neither of us knows what the other is saying, we still understand and love each
other.”

Source: VNS