Woodwork artist presents art work inspired by Obama paper cranes to U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy
Jan. 17, 2017
by Fumiyasu Miyano, Staff Writer
Tokuma Takebe, 29, a woodwork artist living in the city of Yamaguchi, presented a piece he made to Caroline Kennedy, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, at the end of last year. The work draws on the motif of the paper cranes that U.S. President Barack Obama folded and brought to Hiroshima when he visited the city last May. Mr. Takebe, awarded the “Yamaguchi Budding Artist Prize” by the City of Yamaguchi in 2015, produced the piece to commend Ambassador Kennedy’s contribution to realizing President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima.
The piece is in the form of a wooden lantern, 12 centimeters in diameter and 13 centimeters in height, inside of which a candle can be lit. To make the lantern, he hollowed out a log of Japanese red pine grown in Yamaguchi Prefecture to a few centimeters in thickness and made a cylindrical cover. He then incorporated five pieces of silverwork, which were inspired by Mr. Obama’s paper cranes, to the axis and fan of the turbine placed inside the lantern. When the turbine turns after the candle warms the air, shadows of the rotating silver paper cranes appear faintly on the thin red pine cylinder and the ceiling of the room.
Mr. Takebe once worked at an art gallery in Hiroshima for about a year after graduating from the Graduate School of Yamaguchi Prefectural University in the city of Yamaguchi. He said that the connections he formed with the A-bomb survivors he met while he was in Hiroshima were the source of inspiration for this piece.
Mr. Takebe believes that peace can be realized “if people who share the wish for a peaceful world can get closer and work together.” Last August, he collaborated with a monk at Sairenji Temple in Naka Ward, Hiroshima and displayed an installation work. In that display he expressed the idea of peace through a combination of art and religion.
He was motivated to create the lantern for Ms. Kennedy as a gesture of gratitude for the fact that her efforts helped President Obama take the historic step of visiting Hiroshima, the first sitting American president to come to the A-bombed city. Mr. Takebe shared his hopes by saying, “I’d like Ambassador Kennedy to continue illuminating people around her with the wish for peace, just like candlelight illuminates the dark.”
(Originally published on January 17, 2017)
Tokuma Takebe, 29, a woodwork artist living in the city of Yamaguchi, presented a piece he made to Caroline Kennedy, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, at the end of last year. The work draws on the motif of the paper cranes that U.S. President Barack Obama folded and brought to Hiroshima when he visited the city last May. Mr. Takebe, awarded the “Yamaguchi Budding Artist Prize” by the City of Yamaguchi in 2015, produced the piece to commend Ambassador Kennedy’s contribution to realizing President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima.
The piece is in the form of a wooden lantern, 12 centimeters in diameter and 13 centimeters in height, inside of which a candle can be lit. To make the lantern, he hollowed out a log of Japanese red pine grown in Yamaguchi Prefecture to a few centimeters in thickness and made a cylindrical cover. He then incorporated five pieces of silverwork, which were inspired by Mr. Obama’s paper cranes, to the axis and fan of the turbine placed inside the lantern. When the turbine turns after the candle warms the air, shadows of the rotating silver paper cranes appear faintly on the thin red pine cylinder and the ceiling of the room.
Mr. Takebe once worked at an art gallery in Hiroshima for about a year after graduating from the Graduate School of Yamaguchi Prefectural University in the city of Yamaguchi. He said that the connections he formed with the A-bomb survivors he met while he was in Hiroshima were the source of inspiration for this piece.
Mr. Takebe believes that peace can be realized “if people who share the wish for a peaceful world can get closer and work together.” Last August, he collaborated with a monk at Sairenji Temple in Naka Ward, Hiroshima and displayed an installation work. In that display he expressed the idea of peace through a combination of art and religion.
He was motivated to create the lantern for Ms. Kennedy as a gesture of gratitude for the fact that her efforts helped President Obama take the historic step of visiting Hiroshima, the first sitting American president to come to the A-bombed city. Mr. Takebe shared his hopes by saying, “I’d like Ambassador Kennedy to continue illuminating people around her with the wish for peace, just like candlelight illuminates the dark.”
(Originally published on January 17, 2017)
