“Poetry, music and other art forms can
be the conductor of the power."

Kyoko Asano

 
 

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KYOKO ASANO

White Camellia

By Kyoko Asano

Air was saturated with stench of burnt cities, and of death.
Since the bombing of the day before, the sky
over Tokyo and Yokohama was blood-red without
blue or the sun. An old man dragging his entangled Kimono

Stumbled past Yuki, gurgling someone’s name. She saw
no one other than the man himself- as far as she could
survey over the 360 degree open view of the waste land,
a soot- smeared girl in her early teens pass by.

Yuki had been on the road for several hours now looking
for Miss Urano: her teacher, best friend, big sister. Two
strands of braided hair swung as she quickly turned her
head to look back at the old man. On her face too, ran tears.

She had been at Miss Urano’s obliterated home
where a broken main poured furiously on the remains:
smashed roof tiles, beams, massive volumes of books…
Mister Watabe, the next door neighbor, climbed out

of his bomb shelter-looking like a ragamuffin ghost. He told Yuki
how Miss Urano had been taken by the neighborhood rescue
team-her father dead; Miss Urano barely alive.

Military men on three wheeled vehicles appeared, throwing
straw-mats on dead bodies – scattered among other debris.
It was late afternoon when she found Miss Urano in one

of the tent-hospitals erected within a few hours of the
earthshaking waves of B-29’s at last distanced
beyond the China Sea.

Miss Urano lay in one of about thirty cots in the semi-dark
interior, under the cover of the raised blanket. Her head, neck,
arms and hands were under bandages, leaving open holes through
which she could see, breathe, and take water.

“Listen!” The teacher pleaded in a murmur that seemed to scuff
her lung: “Don’t hate…not even enemies – for we are…they; and
they…are we and we are one.” Miss Urano’s eye-lids slowly
blinked as if to say, “It is so!”

“Hai, Sensei!” In an effort to urge her teacher on. Yuki was able
to hear the rest of Miss Urano’s admonition:

“What I say to you, you may not grasp now; but you WILL
one day. Please remember… You cannot forgive yourself
without forgiving others. Yukisan, I forgive you, for
whatsoever you think you have done…”

As Miss Urano took a sip of water from the nurse; she glanced at
the half-wilted Camelia. Then painfully she murmured:
“…love…white..C..a..mellia.”

The following morning Yuki returned to the tent hospital with
fresh Camellias picked from the rubbish. But the cot was empty.
The nurse took the new stems of white Camellia, arranged them
in an old medicine bottle; placed them on a bench next to the
empty cot.

 

 
"BOWL" 1988

 


"SEA" 1987


KYOKO ASANO

Born in Tokyo, Japan
December 23, 1933

EDUCATION:

1978 Claremont Graduate School, M.F.A.
1972 Cal State University, Fullerton, M.A.
1971 Cal State University, Fullerton, B.A.
1969 Mt. San Antonio College, A.A.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

1992 Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1988 Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1987 West Hills College, Coalinga, CA
1986 Long Beach City College, Long Beach, CA
Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1985 Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1984 Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
West Hills College, Coalinga, CA
Orlando Gallery, Sherman Oaks, CA
1983 Orlando Gallery, Sherman Oaks, CA
1982 Stage One Gallery, Orange County, CA
Orlando Callery, Sherman Oaks, CA

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

1988 The Bestiary, The Women's Building Gallery,
Los Angeles
California Landscapes, Downey Museum of Art
Mask Show, ArtSpace Gallery, Los Angeles
Southern California Artists, Laguna Museum of Art
1987 California, Land and Sea,
West Hills College, Coalinga, CA
Regional Art, Art Angles Gallery, City of Orange, CA
1986 Southern California Collection,
Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles
Japan-America, Long Beach Museum of Art
East-West, Montgomery Gallery,
Pomona College
L.A. Artists, Bullock's Department Stores, Beverly Center, Los Angeles
1985 Contemporary Japanese Artists in California, Weinstock's Dept. Stores, curated by Soker/Kaseman Gallery, San Francisco
L.A. Artists, Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA
1984 L.A. Pattern Painters, ARCO Center for Visual Arts, Los Angeles
1983 Ten, Ten, Ten, Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art L.A. 1983, Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

1982 Visiting Artists, Libra Hall,
Claremont Graduate School
L.A. Painting, Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art
1981 Edges and Surfaces, Mill's House Gallery,
Garden Grove, CA
Group Show, Libra Hall, Claremont Graduate School
1980 Three L.A. Artists, ArtSpace Gallery, Los Angeles
1979 L.A. '79, Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles
1978 California-Hawaii, Fine Art Gallery, San Diego, CA
1975 Visual Poetics, California State University,
Los Angeles
Five Galleries of Orange County,
Laguna Beach Museum

COLLECTIONS:

American Savings & Loan Association, Los Angeles
Robert Biniaz, Los Angeles
Capital Group, Los Angeles
Chemical Bank, New York
Federal Reserve Bank, San Francisco
Ed Grove, Los Angeles
Mr. & Mrs. Heiss, Chicago
I.B.M., Los Angeles
International Invetments & Mortgage Company, San Francisco
International Telephone & Telegraph, San Francisco
James J. Joseph, Los Angeles
Lloyd Bank, Los Angeles
Jean R. Milant, Los Angeles
Susan Miller, Los Angeles
Mitchell & Silverdeng-Knupt Law Firm, Los Angeles
Mobil Oil, New York
Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA
Rosa Needleman, Los Angeles
O'Melveny & Myers Law Offices, Los Angeles
Pacific Bell, Los Angeles
Paul, Hastings, Janofsky Law Firm, Los Angeles
Barbara Presti, Chicago
Scripps Institute of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA
Security Pacific National Bank, Los Angeles
Mr. & Mrs. Dennis Tani, Los Angeles
Takashi Teramaye, Los Angeles
Tunnell & Co., Los Angeles
Union Bank, Los Angeles
Theodore Waddell, Molt, Montana
Lynne Wesimore & Bill Bloom, Los Angeles

  
         
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