heARTwork by Yuri: June 2025

dear heARTists and heART lovers of the heART universe. it’s the 8th day of the 6th month, and time for more heARTwork by Yuri.

OUR JAPAN TRAVELS

recently, we were fortunate to travel to Japan during hanami (flower viewing) of sakura (cherry blossoms).

besides staying in Ikebukuro, we also visited other cities and districts like Ginza, Machida-shi, Bunkyo, Sumida-ku, Shinagawa, Shibuya, Yokohama, Tsurumi-ku, Ueno, Asakusa, and even took the shinkansen (bullet train) to Osaka and Kyoto. all of this in a two-week time period!

one of the reasons we visited so many places was for information and image gathering of specific memorials. as you know, we’ve been working on a film about Yuriko called ‘Tokyo Lily, a war bride docu*memory’ for awhile. amazingly, she survived three major disasters early in her life.

the first one was the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, which killed some 100,000 people.

later, Yuriko lived through the B-29 fire bombing that destroyed Tokyo and also killed around 100,000 people. it was the singular most destructive bombing against civilians in the world, ever.

interestingly, both memorials are enshrined in the same temple in Yokoamicho Park.

Yokoamicho Park

later on our trip, we visited Soji-ji in Yokohama. these palatial grounds are home to dozens of temples and one is in honor of the Sakuragicho train disaster victims of 1951. unbelievably, Yuriko not only survived that crash, but so did i! yes, i was quite young then.

anyway, all of it will be part of ‘Tokyo Lily, a war bride docu*memory’.

a big shout-out to all of our Japanese hosts and the friendly people we met along the way who helped us with directions. tomodachi (friend) forever!

and, major gratitude to our donors for their continued support! https://tokyolily.com/donate

WE’RE NOW ON REDBUBBLE AND TEEPUBLIC

REDBUBBLE

finally, we were able to find time to knock out a few designs for our film fans. and wasn’t just for t-shirts. we also have buttons, stickers and posters. we even have cushions and phone cases!

if you watched the ‘War Brides of Japan, a docu*memory’ on Gumroad, you can now own a t-shirt representing those films. although we have more designs coming soon, the posters of all five films will not be reproduced since they contain private family photos.

still, if you’d like to support ‘Tokyo Lily, a war bride docu*memory’, please consider buying a t-shirt in her honor.

https://www.redbubble.com/people/yayoiclanart/shop

https://www.teepublic.com/user/yayoiclanart

when time permits, we will be printing some of Yuriko’s paintings on products as well. here are some images of her heARTwork:

https://lenastarwheels.wixsite.com/iamartistyuriko

TEEPUBLIC

these past few spring months have been beyond busy with Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in May along with Cinco de Mayo. and, now that it’s June, we’re celebrating Juneteenth, Father’s Day and Pride Month. whew!

please stay in touch through any of the links below:

WEBSITES

https://www.tokyolily.com

https://www.warbridesofjapan.com

https://www.watermelonsushi.com

https://www.yayoiclanart.com

YOUTUBE (please subscribe!)

https://www.youtube.com/@warbridesofjapan

https://www.youtube.com/@WatermelonSushi

FACEBOOK

https://www.facebook.com/WarBridesOfJapan

https://www.facebook.com/throwingriceproductions