After working as a fashion illustrator and contemporary artist, Miyako Yamazaki, now a painter, lives a quiet life with her family of four on the small Hawaiian island of Molokai, continuing to create art for herself, her family, and to deliver messages from God to people. An event celebrating the release of her art collection will be held at Isetan Shinjuku Store, Men's Building 2nd floor, Men's Creators. We conducted a remote interview with Yamazaki, who had just finished painting new works that will be exhibited and sold at the event, and asked her about the pure "feelings" that are so characteristic of her art style.

I didn't aspire to be an artist. It was just something I was good at, and the easiest thing for me.

Born in Togoshi, Tokyo, Miyako Yamazaki developed a passion for art from a young age. After graduating from the painting department of Tama Art University, she worked as a fashion illustrator. Her works, which featured her own illustrations expressed through embroidery, were used in the window displays of Barneys New York's Shinjuku and Yokohama stores. This led her to take on art projects using various approaches, including painting, photography, video, and installation, and she gained recognition as a contemporary artist.

She now lives with her beloved family on the island of Molokai in Hawaii, USA, and continues to create otherworldly, beautiful paintings at her own pace.

This event celebrates the publication of Yamazaki's second collection of works, "Gold Loves Purple - future landscape one thousand years later -" (Akakasha), and will bring together a collection of her new works.


"When I was younger, I was greedy and tried everything. But by the time I moved here about 15 years ago, I had done everything I wanted to do, and honestly, I have absolutely no desire to exhibit my work in Tokyo anymore. It feels like a certain 'chapter' of my life ended there. But for the past few years, I've been getting a lot of requests to 'please have a solo exhibition'... At first I was wondering how to refuse, but I didn't want to disappoint anyone, so I said, 'Okay, I'll do it!' (laughs)." (Yamazaki)


Yamazaki's recent works are so fantastical that it's unclear whether they are landscape paintings or abstract art. However, when she was working as a fashion illustrator in Tokyo, her style was completely different.

"There was no social media like there is now, and artists in our time had very limited opportunities to showcase their work. Getting published in magazines or on television was extremely difficult. But ever since I was a child, I had always decided that I would make a living by drawing, so after graduating from art school, I went around to all sorts of magazines and publishing houses to show my work. Gradually, I started getting some illustration and book illustration jobs, and I spent my days creating works to meet those requests. So, my style at the time wasn't so much my own style, but rather something that was created according to the demands of my clients."

A major turning point, she says, was her unexpected encounter with embroidery during a visit to Nepal. Ms. Yamazaki came up with the idea of expressing her illustrations through the beautiful hand embroidery done by Nepalese artisans. An acquaintance who saw her work introduced her to the head of the Japanese branch of Barneys New York, a global fashion showcase whose window displays also attracted a lot of attention.

"Barneys New York's window displays are famous 'media' that launched the careers of artists like Warhol and Basquiat. I never even considered doing something so ambitious, but my acquaintance contacted them without my knowledge and said they would meet with me and take a look. My acquaintance liked my work, but the person who decides what to display in the windows is Simon Doonan, the creative director in New York. So, I ended up sending my work to New York for them to review. Sending the actual artwork overseas was quite typical of that era, wasn't it? (laughs)"

Yamazaki's embroidery art, which was recognized by fashion industry heavyweight Doonan, has now graced the windows of Barneys New York's Shinjuku and Yokohama stores. The effect has been tremendous, and she has become recognized as a fashion illustrator and artist, with her work being featured by popular fashion brands such as Christian Dior and Comme des Garçons.


"I was lucky enough to achieve my dreams one after another, and even get featured on TV and in magazines. But one day, when I was in my mid-twenties, the colors I found beautiful suddenly changed. I looked at all sorts of visuals in bookstores, but I couldn't figure out why. Then one night, I suddenly woke up and felt, 'Hawaii!' It was like a message from God. I didn't know where in Hawaii to go, so I just went to all sorts of places. And that's how I fell in love with Molokai Island."

A moment given by God is something that can happen to anyone.

"You might be wondering, 'Why Molokai?' Well, Molokai is indeed a wonderful place. But what I'm trying to say isn't, 'Everyone should come to Molokai.' I want everyone to find their own 'answer,' just like Molokai was for me. For me, it happened to be Molokai, but it's bound to be completely different for each person. It might not even be a place at all."

In 2006, Yamazaki published a photo essay titled "A Gift from Molokai Island." However, it turns out that the title, which features Molokai Island, was not actually what he wanted.

"I actually wanted to make it something simple like 'Days on the Island.' But the person in charge at the publishing company said that it would be too difficult for readers to understand, so they insisted that I include the words 'Molokai Island.' I was really conflicted, but it was the only request from the publishing company, who had proceeded with the book without changing a single word of my writing. So I decided to accept it."

It seems that Yamazaki was concerned that readers would be left with only a strong impression of the place "Molokai Island," and the word and image associated with it.

"My new book is titled 'Days on Molokai,' but my wish was for it to be titled 'House on Sandalwood Hill' (laughs). I think you can find 'treasures' anywhere, whether it's Maui, Ishigaki, or the Maldives. But that's not what the 'answer' is. Molokai can't be everyone's 'answer,' and I want people to find their own 'answer' with their own hands. You might think that beautiful scenery like that of Molokai can only be seen on Molokai, but that's not true. When I lived in Tokyo, the sunset reflected in the Kurokawa River in Gotanda was breathtakingly beautiful. But when you're busy living, you sometimes don't notice it. The sky in Molokai and the sky in Tokyo are the same. They're all connected."

Yamazaki, who continues to paint while appreciating the happiness of being in the place where she belongs, and of course, living surrounded by her beloved family and beautiful scenery, has a consistent creative theme.

"When I was in fifth grade, I had a mystical experience. Since then, I've always been searching for the 'answer' to 'what was that?' and expressing what that experience was like has become my life itself. After I started living on Molokai, when I returned to Tokyo, an acquaintance who is a 'psychic' told me, 'You have the power to depict the invisible world. You can have all your wishes fulfilled, but please don't live a life that's just that. Imagine our ideal world exists 1000 years from now, and you, standing there, live in the moment of 'now' 1000 years prior.' They said my mission is to depict that 'landscape 1000 years from now' and show it to people."

It was then that Yamazaki finally realized that the mystical landscape he had seen as a child was a glimpse of the future 1000 years from now, shown to him by God. Since then, he has been able to put into words for the first time the "landscapes" he has depicted as his life's work and the themes of his creative work.


"I was raised being taught that if you pray and call upon God's name, you can become a 'pure-hearted child.' I found the words themselves beautiful, so I prayed diligently. Then one day, I had an experience of consciousness that is simply indescribable, like a glimpse into the world of enlightenment. The phrase 'landscape 1000 years from now' is just a metaphor; it could actually be 10,000 years from now, or it could be right now. What I want to convey is not superficial things like 1000 years from now or Molokai Island, but that a moment given by God can happen to anyone. I just want people to gaze upon that moment, and I hope this exhibition can be a starting point for that."


Finally, we asked Yamazaki about her thoughts on this event.

"I've always just been doing the same thing. Perhaps there's a soul in the sea and sky that stretches out before me. But there are no thoughts there. No one's feelings are embedded in it. If it were me, living in a world overflowing with so many different feelings, I wouldn't want to hang someone else's feelings on my wall. I would never want to put 'feelings' into my work."

View Miyako Yamazaki's product list at the Mitsukoshi Isetan online store.

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Text: Junya Hasegawa (America)

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