Traditions: Ohio Heritage Fellows; 201; Yasue Sakaoka interview, part 1 of 5

Q:

YASUE: My name is Yasue Sakaoka, spelling Y-A-S-U-E last name, S-A-K-A-O-K-A.

Q:

YASUE: I am known as an Artist Educator

Q:

YASUE: My mother was a kindergarten teacher when she was young and single. And after she got married, she could not continue her work. So, she had her own kindergarten with her children, I’m told. And paper folding is one of the things we could do with her. We did dancing, we did music, playing outside, I made my own garden.

Q:

YASUE: Himeji City, Japan. The city is known for its well preserved castle and it it’s called a White Stork Castle. There used to be storks around the castle in the mote and it’s really one of the best castles in Japan.

Q:

YASUE: There are people who are professionals, and they carry on many old Japanese traditions. I do not come from that background, except I picked up some skills from my mother. The woman do their hobbies, (inaudible) and I was in that group with many of my mother’s sisters, yea.

Q:

YASUE: Yes.

Q:

YASUE: Origami is written in two characters, that means folding paper. And that has a very long tradition. It was perfected, probably, in... probably uh, late eighteenth century. And it became a hobby. There were many complications around that time and became popularized. Also, the mass production of paper became possible. This was the early part of the nineteenth century. So, the school started to use this art form for their program, and everyone does it if you went to an elementary school or kindergarten in Japan. Everyone knows that.

Q:

YASUE: It’s a cultural thing. I should show you and, probably, you’d like to copy photographs of one thousand cranes. And there is a practice of folding one thousand cranes to make a wish. And I remember, at my grandmother’s house, I had three grandparents. When she was going to visit Manchuria, community people got together and made one thousand cranes for her safe return. And it was hanging in her Buddhist’s alter. She was a local physician’s wife and uh, she had many friends. I remember that. Also, at Hiroshima peace memorial park, I have photographs. People bring thousands of cranes from all parts of the world. You can’t believe it. It’s just heaps and heaps.