Yesterday I wrote in part about the book launch I did Saturday afternoon. Here’s some more–and it’s adoption related.

The launch was held at the Texas State Museum of Asian Cultures and Education Center. It is one of my favorite places in Corpus and contains a huge amount of Asian art, mostly from Japan but also China, Taiwan, India, Korea, and Vietnam. My favorites are the large 17th century 3500 pound bronze Buddha on the first floor, the scary beautiful samurai armor, and the Korean geobukseon( turtle ship) model. The centerpiece, though, is the 900 Hakata Doll collection, the largest in the world. There’s lots of activities for kids, cooking classes, and even drumming.

After the launch reading was over, I walked around for a while and found a small Junkyo Ohishi (Oishi Junkyoni) exhibit with some of her work, pictures, and a binder with her story.

Dream by Junkyo Ohishi:

After reading her story, I decided to write a little about her for NAM/NAAM. I didn’t take notes and figured I would find her online when I got home. Unfortunately, there is hardly anything, under either spelling, surprising since she is well-known in Japan for her art, activism, and the temple she founded. I have only found a short bio of her and some pictures of the temple and museum Only a couple of her paintings are online.

So here is where adoption comes in.

This is Junkyo and I believe her adoptive father.

Junkyo Ohishi was born Yone Ohishi in 1888 to parents of “meager means.” At a young age she showed a talent for dancing and was adopted by the master of a famous dancing school and took the name Junkyo Oshishi. (I would like to know what adoption means in this context, but I can’t find anything online about how this relationship would work out.) As a young teenager, ,she trained as a dancer and geisha. and performed under the name of Tsumakichi.. In 1903, when she was 15, her adopted father murdered 5 geishas in his school, slashed Ohishi across the face with a knife, and cut off her arms! There is no other information about this horrendous event, other than the adoptive father was executed in 1905. Undeterred, when she recovered Junkyo joined a traveling theatre company as a comic storyteller.

Kannon by Junkyo Ohishi:

Then at the age of 19 her life changed forever. consequently, changing the lives of others tfor generations. Watching a bird pick up and hold things with its beak, Junkyo was inspired to learn to paint with a brush in her mouth. She studied painting and calligraphy, and her work became highly respected by the Nihon bijutsu tenrankai (Japan Fine Arts Exhibition). At the age of 39 her life took another big turn. She divorced her husband, also an artist, and 6 months later became a Buddhist nun. In 1951, she founded the Bukkoin Temple in Kyoto, devoting herself to her art, writing books, and advocating for the disabled, including teaching the disabled to make art. Today she is known as the Mother of the Disabled.

She died at the age of 80 in 1968.

In 2022 her work was shown at the Endless Knot: Struggle and Healing in the Buddhist World show at the Berkley Museum and Film Archive and at the Her Brush: Japanese Women Artists from the Fong-Johnstone Collection show at the Denver Museum of Art.

I knew I wanted to blog about her when I discovered her at the Asian Museum, and am really disappointed that so little is available about her online. I’m really sorry there isn’t more, and I hope that what I got is right I think she was an extraordinary woman worthy of recognition and remembrance.