Workshop in Okinawa, Japan
24 May 2000 - 20 June 2000
NAKADOMARI ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
ART JAPAN
24 May 2000 - 20 June 2000
NAKADOMARI ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
ART JAPAN
Hello, everyone! I'm Miki Nakamura of Nakadomari Elementary School of Onna Village, Okinawa. We began drawing KIDS' GUERNICA about three weeks ago. First our Teacher Tatsuko Hika told us about Picasso's GUERN ICA, and explained why we were going to draw this big mural after the great painter's masterpiece. We knew what it was like as we had enjoyed drawing various pictures together so far, and we'd seen the mural that our seniors drew as a graduation memory on the wall of Cosmos Circle facing our schoolyard. So we decided to give it a try. First we drew whatever each of us liked on a small drawing paper. And then, wepicked up better ones among them to make a whole composition. After a while, we were given boxes of 12 big tube colors from Penteru Co. Ltd. in Okinawa. And a huge canvas from ART JAPAN followed them. First we were worried if we could complete this, but our Teacher assuredly said, "It's all right. We can count on your seniors for the details" Then we started. To begin with, we enlarged and drew the people doing Eisah Dance in front of Shurei-Mon, a symbol for Okinawa, in the center. We also drew the tree and the flowers of coral tree , which is Okinawa Prefecture Flower. My friend Yukiko added four, very adorable spirits called Kijimuna to the tree. We also drew a well-known poet in Onna Village, Navy Onna. Hibiscus of the southern countries, Yuna of Village Flower and Cosmos flower imagined form Cosmos Circle of our school were drawn, with butterflies flying among them. We put famous bullfight in Okinawa and a brave bullfighter into it. By drawing what happened here at the War, we prayed that we should never have this miseries again. And then, we finished the mural with a peace bird pigeon bringing the words "Life is precious". We all enjoyed putting the paints into the line drawings, chatting. During the painting, we had visits of a lot of teachers, our Headmaster and our seniors to encaurage us. We were very glad to hear that our big mural would be exhibited at the Naha Airport on time for G8 Summit. As we were told that our mural would be going abroad, we want the children in the world to know from the mural that our Okinawa issuch a good place. It was fortunate for us to join the International Children's Peace Mural Exhibition. We thank Mr. Yasuda of ART JAPAN and other teachers for giving us the chance to have this wonderful experience. From Nakadomari, Thank you.
CORDINATOR:
INAMINE Seiso
TEACHER:
HIGA Hirokuni
HIGA Katsuko
Children:
NAKAMURA Hiroto
NAKAMURA Yoshiki
MATSUDA Hiroto
？-Kazuhiro
WATAGUCHI Keiji
KINJYO ？
？ Youichi
TOKEJI ？
YAMASHIRO Masahiko
TOGAWA Mari
NAGAHAMA Naoyuki
NAKAMURA Miwako
TOGI Yurie
TOGAWA Ayana
SHIMABUKURO Rei
NAKAMURA Miki
MURAKAMI Momoko
NAGAHAMA Shiori
MIYAGI Yuna
YAMASHIRO Mina
NAKAMURA Yukiko
AMASE Kazuki
NAKAMURA Noriko
YAMASHIRO Chiaki
SENNA Sayuri
NAGAHAMA Airi
TOKEJI Yuko