Ramen has taken Dumaguete by storm. No mean feat in a City famous for its hard-to-please palate, and the variety of culinary choices crammed within its modest borders. Making a great bowl of ramen involves amazing attention to detail, care, and technique.
When I was invited to exhibit a video game on the vicenary of the Tokyo Game Show, the same dish kept me sane during the marathon coding, animation, and testing. Excellent ramen truly is food for the soul–not least because of the talent and effort poured into its preparation.
The same tradition of craftsmanship inspired the art exhibit on display at Shelter PH Gallery from March 10 through April 7, titled Ichi-go Ichi-e after an old Japanese proverb that can be translated as “in this moment, an opportunity.”
Created by Oriental Negrense-Japanese artists Risa Yamada and Amber Tashiro out of a yearning for reconnection with their Japanese roots, the show has an allure that all but compelled me to take up interviewing again after a long hiatus. A response not contradicted by the exhibit’s packed opening and warm reception.
To a distinguished guest — artist, writer, and curator Stephanie Frondoso — Ichi-go Ichi-e “came together beautifully as a two-person exhibit; oftentimes, combining two artists could lead to a disjointed show. Instead, their mixed Filipino and Japanese cultural influences played harmoniously, both in concept and in aesthetics”.
I wanted to understand a little better what’s behind the craft and the magic. In this online conversation, I ask Risa and Amber to talk about their backstories, and their Ichi-go Ichi-e creative journey:
KCS: Could you talk a bit about your parents’ love stories, where you were born, and where you grew up?
Risa: My parents met in South Korea through the Church of the Holy Spirit. This church aims to unify all races and religions. Inter-racial marriages are encouraged. My parents were matched within the church. They did not find each other objectionable (laughs). So they agreed to be married. I was born in my mother’s hometown in Nagano, Japan–three hours by bus outside Tokyo. When I was around a year old, we moved to Siaton. I grew up here in Siaton. But every year, we would return to Japan to visit our grandmother for a month or two at a time.
Amber: I don’t know much about my parents’ love story (chuckles). My mom worked in Japan before. That’s how she met my dad. Actually, I’ve never been to Japan. I was born and raised here in Dumaguete. My dad would just visit us.
KCS: Where are your parents now?
Risa: Papa is here in Siaton. Mama is in Japan with my younger sister.
Amber: I’m with my mom. My dad is in Japan. We communicate online.
KCS: Can you speak and understand Nihongo?
Risa: Yes, but only at a conversational level. Not the deep stuff. Whenever we visited our grandmother, we sat in classes with other Japanese children to gain exposure to the language and culture.
Amber: I used to be able to speak basic Nihongo as a child. My dad, during his visits, would make worksheets for me so I could learn the language. He hasn’t visited in a while. I wasn’t able to practice and retain it. My dad also knows English. Subsequently, that’s how we communicate online.
KCS: Is it true that Japanese parents are strict disciplinarians?
Risa: In my experience, they’re just naturally strict.
Amber: Yeah.
Risa: They’re very particular about how you should behave.
Amber: I can see that my father has a strict side. But my relationship with him has always been so good. He never scolds me or anything like that.
Risa: I wish! (Laughs.)
Amber: It’s very seldom that we’re together in person. Maybe that’s why…
KCS: If you don’t mind, I’ll ask the usual but nonetheless important question: Why the fine arts?
Risa: That! (Risa and Amber giggle.) Actually, I first thought of taking up architecture. Then I realized math was not for me! (More giggling from the two. I join the mirth, surprised that a Japanese person can also struggle at math.) I heard that a family friend was majoring in fine arts, and since I was also active in high school art competitions, I decided to follow suit. I said to myself, “This is it. No math!” I thought it would be easy. I was scammed (laughs). It was hard!
KCS: Isn’t that ultimately a good thing though? Your tuition fee wasn’t wasted. You had rigorous training.
Risa: I guess so… and it wasn’t cheap…
Amber: I enrolled in architecture for a year before shifting to fine arts (in an amused voice while Risa giggles again in the background). Architecture seemed like the most practical option but it was not for me also. I’ve been drawing since I was a kid. My dad knows how to draw. I learned that from him. My dad is also serious about photography. My dad and mom are both covered in tattoos… I’ve always been surrounded by artistic people. That’s why I decided that art was what I really wanted to do.
KCS: Is your dad an architect or an artist?
Amber: He’s a construction engineer, but photography is his passion and forte. His pictures from Dumaguete had been exhibited in Japanese galleries.
KCS: What about your parents, Risa?
Risa: Papa worked in industrial engineering. He was engaged in drawing in his youth. Mama wanted to be a manga artist. But her family in Nagano could not afford to send her to university; you see, my grandfather passed away early… Mama instead took a vocational course.
KCS: Your parents were already into the arts. Did you not encounter any resistance from them when you expressed your intent to major in Fine Arts?
Risa: None.
Amber: Never. Never.
Risa: They were very supportive.
KCS: That must’ve been quite nice… What did you do after graduating from Silliman?
Risa: I moved to Tokyo, worked in sales. But after several months, I returned to Dumaguete, took a job at the Ariniego Gallery. I also assisted on some mural projects. I’m currently doing graphics design for local clients. I get by.
Amber: I taught college courses in the humanities at Silliman for a semester then at Foundation for three. At present, I’m a graphics designer at a firm that caters to the Australian market.
KCS: How about your fine arts practice?
Risa: It’s been sporadic because I prioritized client work. I participated in a performance art piece for ViVA-ExCon Capiz. I joined several group shows after.
Amber: After university, I continued to be active in the art world through my teaching. I did some group exhibits. I then focused on client work just like Risa. Really, this is my first show in three years.
KCS: Let’s go back to how this exhibit started:
Risa: This was supposed to be a solo show for Amber. But… yeah… it’s understandable if she found it a little intimidating. She offered to collaborate with me. I knew it’s going to be stressful… and I just had my baby. Oh my God! (Chuckles.) In the end, I took the offer because it’s been a while since I made art for myself.
The exhibit’s title, “Ichi-go Ichi-e,” was born out of this situation. It’s a favorite phrase of my mother that resonated with Amber and me. Although it’s true that a given incident could be encountered again later in life, the feeling you felt the first time will never be exactly the same.
Amber: I completely agree on the title… I thought of Risa because we have a common background. Our theme, of course, came out of that.
KCS: You had your team and your theme, how did you deal with the terror of the blank canvas?
Risa: I dug deep into personal experience, into memories made from those visits at my grandmother’s house in Nagano. My grandmother was heavily into arts and crafts… She had a dedicated drawer for origami paper. She also had great reverence for nature. Her house was in the mountains surrounded by a diversity of plants. I thus took my motifs from all that–the origami paper patterns, flora, and landscape I saw in Nagano.
Amber: Growing up, my dad would send me care packages full of art materials including origami and washi paper. Those were very important to me… The thing with the patterns printed on origami and washi paper is that… I don’t know what the word is… but they’re very repetitive, clean, calculated…
KCS: Precise?
Amber: Yeah, that one. I wanted to create works that take these traditional designs and turn them into something not as precise and calculated… but more free-flowing.
Risa: We’re only given a month to put up a show. I had no idea at first what I could do… So I set aside a day to think and plan–like this pattern should go here and this illustration there… But when we began cutting the canvases, I went ahead without regard to my previous sketches. The final compositions just seemed to have fallen into place.
I’m most impressed by Risa’s layered, recursive, and lyrical compositions: There’s the shaped canvases which turned out to be abstracted clouds. Then flowers rendered in a naturalistic style. Next are areas of contrasting color that appear to simulate torn paint–seemingly assuming the silhouettes of mountains, boulders, and clouds. Lastly, within each of these “silhouettes” are illustrations of landscape elements done in a geometric fashion–flowers, rocks, clouds, streams, and waves–echoing previous layers.
Amber: Out of all my paintings in this show, “Wa” best represents how I make art. My thought process can be described as a search for order in chaos. There’s a lot going on on the canvas, yet when you look closer, there’s actually harmony, peace.
KCS: How do you achieve that? Is it instinctive? Or do you try several iterations before settling on a final pattern?
Amber: No… I don’t do drafts or sketches. Everything unfolds on the canvas as I go.
“Wa” is also the painting I most gravitated to on Amber’s side of the gallery. The piece consists of curved lines flowing with a strange rhythm in myriad directions on a field of reds, blues, yellows, and gold. At first glance, I saw petals and the delicate veins coursing through their skins. But the dictionary reveals a hint of the haikuist in the artist’s choice of titles. A prized skill in haiku is the ability to create dreaming room with the fewest of words. “Wa” means water but it’s also the oldest name for Japan whose kanji was consciously chosen to denote harmony, peace, and balance.
KCS: What’s the most gratifying part of your Ichi-go Ichi-e creative journey?
Amber: For three years, I’ve thought that art was something I had left behind. That I would only be working for corporations and never for myself. When I go to exhibitions, the people I know get fewer and fewer. I really felt like an outsider. Faye Mandi [founder of Shelter PH Gallery] really pushed me to do the show. It was the best decision I’ve made that I asked Risa to do it with me. We deeply struggled with the time and resource constraints while also going through a lot in our personal lives… When the opening came, so many people went. We heard many kind words about our work. It’s as if we never left the art world at all.
Risa: I didn’t expect the turnout to be like that. In the opening, there were plenty of people we didn’t even know. Leading cultural workers in the City showed up. First in mind is Stephanie Frondoso. She asked me fascinating questions and I completely ran out of words! (Guffaws.) After most of the visitors had left… it was only then that it began to sink in–we actually did it!
