Traditions: Ohio Heritage Fellows; 201; Yasue Sakaoka interview, part 2 of 5

Q:

YASUE: Three or four.

Q:

YASUE: Early... Japanese culture with education is a little bit different from the scene here. Have you heard the Japanese education mothers? That’s their job. They have to be a good wife, but also they have to be good mothers. And train their children as well as they can. It’s an interesting culture seeing it’s a very small island country. Very populated. Competition is very keen. Living there can be very stressful.

Q:

YASUE: There’s some basic folds, they’re called mountain fold, ballet hold and several others. The orientation is very geometric. And, as long as you can manipulate the piece of paper to create different folds, which result in very rich planes, then you have it. And you can be creative with it. I know some people who are very, very creative with origami shapes.

Q:

YASUE: Just when we were very young, also uh, when we had family get togethers around New Year, especially with cousins. So that was one of the games we played. We played Japanese... it’s called icarta from Spanish, the card games, read poetry, pick up the rest of the half from the laid out pieces, yea. Those are some things.

Q:

YASUE: I started the university in Tokyo and I got in to Read College, and other places. Read was my choice. I was very fortunate to receive uh, financial aid too. And uh, I like the idea that it was a (inaudible) school. The varieties are very attractive when we’re young. And also, I had more opportunities there and it was coeducational. There are many other interesting rewards. I chose Read.

Q:

YASUE: Yes. No... no... College. Studying. I was in Sociology. Then I hoped to change my major to art for several reasons.

Q:

YASUE: Well, sociology, at that point in early sixties was beginning to... to become it— independent science or human behavior. I had a little problem with that idea. And I had to spend an extra time preparing for a thesis. And at Read, they attract interesting people. And many from New York, including some Jewish people who are really thinkers. And Ben Shahn’s daughter was there too, just to mention a name. Ben Shahn. Yea, he was known for his (inaudible) affiliation that was in the fifties and sixties. And he was a Polish Jew. (inaudible) daughter’s name is Abby. She should be very active in New York doing big paintings. The center of that is the school Higgins School of Painting. I ran into her again and her mother was teaching there, yea. So, I was drawn by many things, and people are very human. Science was somewhat cold and that campus can be very, very cold. So, is University of Oregon too. If you’re near it, then you feel this austerity. Yea, very austere. If you step out it’s different. And I enjoyed my five and a half years or five year program. I had to take extra courses, but I thought I would be fitted better in art.

Q:

YASUE: It’s because of the material. I had a choice of history, dance, painting, and I chose sculpture because of the humbleness of the material. I liked clay, I liked stone, I like an bl—black and white drawings, yea.

Q:

YASUE: I started to do experiments when I was teaching in the south. Sudden association of sculptors did not welcome any innovative creative idea. On the east coast, you will note, Ohio is very different too. And I find Ohio very refreshing for that reason. You work somehow reflects what’s going on in New York. It’s not happening here. Ohio is very unique and very refreshing and it supports creative ideas like Ohio Arts Council, yes. It’s one of the greatest uh, support systems I find.

Q:

YASUE: I was going to teach design at OU in the, I think it’s the extension program. So, I was looking for ideas. Then I went into a small shop on the top floor of a department store in Tokyo and they had the book.