springtime heART

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

https://ww.facebook.com/hapateez

INSTAGRAM

https://www.instagram.com/warbridesofjapan/

https://www.instagram.com/yayoiclanart

WAR BRIDES OF JAPAN, A DOCU*MEMORY FILMS

https://watermelonsushi.gumroad.com/

DONATE TO TOKYO LILY

watermelonsushiworld.blogspot.com

thank you for your continued support!

Yuri’s Fans Forever

 

summer bloom: toyko lily

here’s our hope for a most joyous upcoming summer to you, dear heARTists and heART lovers!

it’s the 8th day of the 6th month, and time to catch up with our favorite heARTist, Yuriko.

if you’ve been following this blog, then you know that we’ve been in the process of making a film about her called ‘Tokyo Lily, a War Bride docu*memory'.

here’s the trailer we created with some images that will be featured in the film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qW3S8xr-eQ

and, yes, we’re still fundraising. 

https://crowdfundr.com/tokyo-lily

although our dedicated donors have been so instrumental in getting our super 8mm and miniDV tapes digitized for editing, we could always use more donations. 

besides paying for music licensing, we also hope to hire an animator for scenes that lack images.

fortunately, we do have the assistance of a researcher who's locating WWII Japan footage and stills. not only is she incredibly knowledgeable, but she's made her own unique story known in the book she's published:

https://www.amazon.in/Becoming-Misako-Kikuchi-Lynn-Hammonds/dp/1537745956/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_pl_foot_top?ie=UTF8

Lynn Hammonds was also instrumental in the production of our 5 films that collectively became ‘War Brides of Japan, a docu*memory’. 

those films are still available on Gumroad:

https://watermelonsushi.gumroad.com/

War Brides of Japan, a docu*memory

please subscribe to our YouTube channel below:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPemluw0stoTsx8yvz2tCrg

you can also check us out at our websites:

https://hapateez.wixsite.com/tokyo-lily

https://warbridesofjapan.com/

and, at our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/WarBridesOfJapan/

arrigatou to our supporters for all your encouragement!

until we meet on September 8, please enjoy your summer!

Yuri’s Fans Forever

lily of tokyo

Tokyo Lily

happy holidays to all you heARTists and heART lovers all around the world! it’s the 8th day of the 12th month, and time to celebrate more heARTwork by Yuri.

everyone, we have more great news for you! 

in October, we released the first trailer for our upcoming film, ‘Tokyo Lily, a war bride docu*memory’—which is about Yuriko’s life and heART.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qW3S8xr-eQ

and, last month, we started a fundraising campaign to help us complete the film:

https://crowdfundr.com/tokyo-lily

with the money you donate, we’ll be processing film footage for editing. we’ll also hire an illustrator/animator to help fill in the spaces of missing WWII Japan images. and, we’ll employ a historian/researcher so we can accurately portray that time period. we’ll need to license music, too. one song we have our heARTs set on costs a whopping $10,000.

oil painting

we’ve already been hard at work cataloging Yuri’s heARTwork including her oil paintings on canvas—on wood, on silk cloth, and even clamshells; her wood carvings, her cut and folded paper creations and, of course, all her sewing projects including crocheted high heel shoes, quilts, and knitted dolls. 

oil on clam shells

wood carved parrot

paper kasa (umbrellas)

crocheted high heels

quilts

knitted dolls

we hope to have that portion of the film done by the end of this year. and, even though that’s just weeks away, it will be the easier part.

 Yuriko means Lily in Japanese

here’s where some of Yuri’s paintings can be seen now:

https://lenastarwheels.wixsite.com/iamartistyuriko

meanwhile, we’ll be processing mini DVD and super 8mm footage of Yuri throughout the years. some of it dates back to the late 1960’s. far out! groovy!

please join us via your contributions. we would really appreciate your help, and we do list each and every name publicly (unless you prefer that we don’t).

besides social media, we’ll also post your name on our Tokyo Lily website:

https://hapateez.wixsite.com/tokyo-lily

if you’d like to know more about our past war bride film projects, check us out at:

https://watermelonsushi.gumroad.com/

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

https://www.youtube.com/c/WatermelonSushi/videos 

www.warbridesofjapan.com

here’s to a wonderful holiday season to you and yours! arrigatou.

Yuri's Fans Forever

summer heART

greetings, heARTists and heART lovers across the universe! it's the 8th day of the 6th month and time to meet again.

how’s your summer going? ours has been super hot with busy-ness! 

we’re so sorry to disappoint you, but we haven't been able to keep our promise to launch two projects about our favorite Japanese war bride and heARTist, Yuri. 

we had hoped to get our fundraiser started by now, but it looks like it will be more like this fall.

meanwhile, we continue to present our 5 war brides films on Gumroad:

https://watermelonsushi.gumroad.com/

in addition to our upcoming doc, 'Tokyo Lily', we’re also creating a graphic novel about Yuri’s life. it's called 'Lily Wisteria' because Yuriko means lily, and her family mon is represented by the wisteria.

Yuri sells her art at the International District Summer Festival

Yuri with her family

as a conduit for Japanese war brides, we’re often contacted by grandchildren who have discovered the extraordinary lives their grandmothers lived—how they left their homes and families to marry their former enemies, American military men. and, how some of them were disowned, never to see Japan again, while others were physically and emotionally abused by their husbands; and, some even by their husbands’ families. 

just consider arriving in a new country, barely speaking the language, and having to navigate a new living space, often with no one around who looks like you. further, most war bride immigration took place during the 1950’s and Jim Crow. 

the Supreme Court ruling of Loving v. Virginia didn’t occur until 1967. prior to that, some white husbands couldn’t even take their Japanese brides to their home state lest they both be arrested for marrying illegally.

Japanese war brides also raised mixed-race children without books or blogs advising them on how to bring up their kids in a society that they were barely familiar with themselves.

but more often than not, Japanese war brides had satisfactory marriages. some even found immeasurable happiness in their new American homes.

if you’d like to know more about Japanese war brides please visit our Youtube channels and subscribe:

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

https://www.youtube.com/c/WatermelonSushi/videos 

we also have a new 'War Brides of Japan, a docu*memory' website. it’s not as fancy as the old one, but all the info is there:

www.warbridesofjapan.com

and, to see more of Yuri’s heARTwork, check out her website:

https://lenastarwheels.wixsite.com/iamartistyuriko 

have a happy heART summer. we’ll return when things cool down some.

Yuri’s Fans Forever