We met with Kumiko Fujimura, a Japanese painter who has been residing in Zaragoza for several decades. We want her to tell us more about her art and culture. While we chat, she takes the opportunity to paint one of the most typical images of Japanese iconography: cranes. The cranes we know so well in Aragón symbolize peace, long life, and good luck in her home country.
Kumiko, you are an artist, educator, cultural promoter… A multifaceted person, please introduce yourself…
I am Kumiko Fujimura, President of the Aragón-Japan Cultural Association, which we established in 2004. For more than 21 years, we have been doing various activities to promote Japanese culture in Zaragoza. We set it up with several people, university professors, specialists in Japanese art, and those who love Japan and are attracted to it.
What do you do from this association?
Every spring, we celebrate hanami, or the cherry blossom season. Additionally, we have the Kamidaiko group, which plays the taiko, our traditional drum. And of course, we participate every year from the Pilar Festival in the Offering of Flowers, dressed in our finest kimonos.
You also offer courses on purely Japanese subjects. Can anyone sign up, or only members?
It is not necessary to be a member. Anyone can come and sign up. Everyone is welcome. We hold ikebana workshops, as well as calligraphy classes. And origami sessions too. In fact, we collaborate with the Origami Museum located at the Centro de Historias. We also conduct bonsai workshops and martial arts classes. We are very active and collaborate with other institutions such as the Casa de las Culturas.
How many members do you have?
We started with 7 people and now we are more than 500. Not bad, considering that in Zaragoza there are only about 50 or 60 Japanese people. So, the majority are locals.
You also organize painting courses, and you are very active there.
Yes, I am a painter. I paint according to the Japanese art of sumi-e. For that, I only use sumi ink. A black ink that results from moistening a block of charcoal and rabbit glue. With that, I paint on rice paper. By the way, you call it that, but it doesn’t actually contain rice. It is simply Japanese paper. It is a type of traditional painting, although ukiyo-e prints are much more well-known. In the prints, there are colors, whereas in sumi-e everything is done in shades of black and gray.
And you teach this method of painting in the association’s courses, right?
Yes, the process of this painting attracts many people, and students seek to learn, but also to relax through the way of working. It is based on copying another drawing and doing it in your own way with the ink and the color black. These courses have been scheduled for years and are very popular.
In addition to teaching it, you are a leading painter in the sumi-e art, with exhibitions around the world.
I have exhibited in places throughout Spain, Europe, and even in America. And of course, in Japan. For example, this coming January, I will participate with my best students here in an international sumi-e exhibition in Tokyo. After that, it will be held in Osaka. I have some students who have been studying with me for years. Some are very good. We also want to prepare a large exhibition in Borja.
A curiosity, do you have any influence from Spanish art in your drawings?
Yes, yes, yes. You see, I started painting in oil as a child. And when I got older, I decided to move to Madrid to learn Western art. I enjoyed it very much, but I also love Japanese calligraphy and the more traditional art of my country.
So you came to Madrid to learn painting. How did you end up in Zaragoza?
I arrived in Madrid in the 90s. I knew very little Spanish. I remember that since I didn’t have a TV, I went to buy a Japanese newspaper that was sold on Gran Vía. It was a newspaper published in London that would arrive here about a week later. That is how I kept up with things in the world. Eventually, I married a man from Madrid. An architect who worked for the army and was assigned to Zaragoza. That’s how I came to Aragón.
We imagine that the cultural shock must have been quite significant.
Yes. We are more methodical and do not improvise much. But here I discovered something else: the instant nature of things. That was a big shock. In the end, I incorporated that into my art as well. That’s why I do performances called Dance and Ink. I combine painting with dance, and everything is faster and more improvised.
Having been here for so many years, you are almost half Aragonese.
Yes, it has been many years. I do things as a Japanese person and also as an Aragonese. Sometimes I don’t know if the odd things are done by people from my country or by Spaniards. Yes, I am half Aragonese and half Japanese.
We are finishing our conversation just as Kumiko finishes her drawing. A pair of cranes in the black and white typical of sumi-e images. It is her gift before we leave.
