9/12/2014 Artist, author Mayumi Oda: 3.11 tragedy was 'wake-up call' to change lifestyles - 毎日新聞

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Mayumi Oda is seen speaking at a TEDxMarunouchi Women event in Tokyo'sMarunouchi district on Dec. 7, 2013.(Photo courtesy of TEDx MarunouchiWomen)

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Mayumi Oda is seen during a

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Artist, author Mayumi Oda: 3.11 tragedy was 'wake-up call'to change lifestylesInternational artist Mayumi Oda had just landedin Japan, the country of her birth, when theearthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster struckon March 11, 2011. While deeply shocked andconcerned, she also felt that the tragedysymbolized Japan's need to engage in profoundsoul-searching -- a message that she is nowdedicating her life to spreading.

"Because of what happened on 3.11, thetechnology of energy is now changing -- and itis time for us to enter a new civilization," Odasaid on Dec. 7 at a TEDx Marunouchi Womenevent in Tokyo, where she was among a lineupof international speakers. "There is no reason tocontinue the present culture of violence and convenience."

"Really, how many nuclear reactors do we need to power warm toilets and vendingmachines?" she said. "Japan has wonderful technology, but the government hasgotten things so backward."

Oda, 72, has spent most of her life making powerful social statements just like this.

Born in Tokyo in 1941, she was deeply affected by the U.S. aerial bombings of her citylate in World War II. Going on to study at the Tokyo University of Fine Arts, she metand married an American translator, associating with famous authors such as YukioMishima, Kenzaburo Oe and Allen Ginsberg. Immersing herself in the movements forsocial justice and women's liberation after they moved to New York City in the 1960s,she began painting goddess imagery during her first pregnancy. These works went onto be shown in museums worldwide.

After divorcing, she settled with her two young sons near a combined farm and Zenmonastery in the northern San Francisco Bay area -- later moving to the Big Island ofHawaii to begin her own farm. She illustrated nearly ten books while continuing herprolific career in painting, also authoring two of her own.

Now, Oda has begun spending more time back in Japan-- continuing to use her art and her voice to encouragethose in her home country to learn from the 3.11tragedy.

Standing against a visual backdrop at the TEDx eventthat featured images of her farm and her artwork, Odapointed out that the word "crisis" in Japanese actuallyincludes the characters for "danger" and "opportunity" --while "Fukushima" in fact means "lucky island."

"This is a chance for us to transform into a peace-basedculture," she said. "Fukushima is a blueprint for action."

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9/12/2014 Artist, author Mayumi Oda: 3.11 tragedy was 'wake-up call' to change lifestyles - 毎日新聞

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visit to Japan in October 2013.(Mainichi)

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Mayumi Oda is seen at her home atGinger Hill Farm in Kealakekua, Hawaii, infront of a scroll of her goddess imagerysymbolizing the transformation fromcrisis to hope following the Fukushimanuclear disaster. (Photo courtesy ofMayumi Oda)

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A central garden set in the shape of aBuddhist mandala is seen at Ginger Hill

Oda expanded upon similar ideas during an interviewwith The Mainichi in October this year.

"I feel that there was a reason why this tragedyoccurred in Japan at the time that it did," she

commented. "We have been living in a nuclear, oil and uranium-based culture, whichbrought us war -- and now, we are on the verge of transforming into a decentralized,solar-based economy.

"In other words, 3.11 was a strong wake-up call for us to move from a culture of fearinto a culture of love."

The love of which Oda speaks is that of a profound connection to nature and the Earth-- a sentiment deeply rooted in the Buddhist spiritualism of her childhood, to whichshe later returned seeking solace during difficult times in her life. And while some maycall such comments mere feel-good platitudes or hollow idealism, Oda is someone whohas consistently matched her talk with action.

A longtime advocate of sustainable, community-based living, as well as a practitionerof naturopathic healing, Oda put her many passions together in 2000 to begin buildingGinger Hill Farm in Hawaii. The farm covers 5 acres along the Big Island's westwardKona coast and features vegetables, fruits and flowering plants from around the world,as well as a central garden set in the shape of a Buddhist mandala. She has sincetrained several hundred people there to grow and cook their own food and medicine,including youth from her native Japan.

"I had long been afraid that earthquake-proneJapan would someday experience a large-scalenuclear disaster, and before that happened, Iwanted to teach people to become self-sufficienton the land," she recounted.

Oda remains convinced, now more than ever,that this sort of natural lifestyle holds the key toher home country's future.

"Now that we have actually experienced nucleardisaster, and are facing the future enactment ofthe TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership free tradedeal), it is truly time for people to begin growingtheir own food," she said. She added that shehas been greatly inspired by the rising numbersof young people in Japan who have alreadyopted to return to the countryside and become food self-sufficient.

Oda also believes that a related lesson for Japan to take from 3.11 is that it mustreturn to the Asian values of cooperation and living in harmony with the Earth, asopposed to the more Western-style ideals of competition and individualism.

Still, she points out that the back-to-the-land movements that flourished in the U.S.during the 1960s and 1970s are still very much alive -- and that Japan can learn fromcertain continuing practices there, such as the organic movement, farmers markets,natural healing, and even Buddhism.

"There are amazing Buddhist practitioners in theU.S. -- many of them women -- and Japan isnow re-learning from them," she said, chucklingat the irony.

"Men cannot take care of this country," she said."They are in so much denial. Women must ariseand begin taking initiative to help the Japanesegovernment and (Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plantoperator Tokyo Electric Power Co.) face this

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9/12/2014 Artist, author Mayumi Oda: 3.11 tragedy was 'wake-up call' to change lifestyles - 毎日新聞

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Farm in Kealakekua, Hawaii, in October2013. (Mainichi)

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得するクレジットカード ウエイトトレーニング 初孫 祝い 進学塾 ⽥舎暮らし 薬剤師求⼈カントリーライフ アニメ 専⾨学校 ６０歳からの保険 ビデオカメラ特価 産婦⼈科 ＤＴＰデザイナーワーキングホリデー 最新スマートフォン 定年後 資格

disaster -- which is, incidentally, not justJapan's, but is international."

Oda ended her TEDx Marunouchi Women talkwith a similar message, which resonated

strongly with the participants.

"I believe that this is a call to the feminine rising," said Patricia Bader-Johnston, abusinesswoman and social entrepreneur who curated the day's event, following Oda'sspeech. "We have heard from men on how to use Earth's resources, and it is now timefor women to stand up and begin raising their voices."

"Men are usually under pressure from their higher-ups -- even Prime Minister Abe,"said Oda. "You have to hope that he and other leaders will be able to somehow get intouch with their feminine sides, and to think about the future -- not just about makingmoney." (By Kimberly Hughes, Staff Writer)

December 28, 2013(Mainichi Japan)

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