“UMI NO ONNA” - Woman Of The Sea 26x20in. Acrylic and ink on canvas © Yumiko Kayukawa

“If I were in Tokyo, I would have been a rebel girl,”says painter Yumiko Kayukawa. “But in my hometown, there was nowhere to go, so I just went home and watched TV.” Kayukawa grew up in Naie, a small town on Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido. Tokyo youth culture was in the distance somewhere, as was American rock ‘n roll and pop culture. Both countries had an effect on the young artist, whose paintings seem to inhabit a world not quite American and not quite Japanese. The centerpiece of her paintings is typically a lithe Japanese woman striking often erotic but never nude poses. Kayukawa said she took some heat from American friends for painting this thin woman. “Yet they don’t complain about the anime women with the big eyes and curvy bodies. I painted this woman realistically. Lots of Japanese women look this way,” she says.
Her paintings are bright, colorful and dreamlike. They typically contain some sort of Japanese writing and animals staring straight at the viewer. The animals are realistically portrayed, although in this dreamworld they are mostly benign. Kayukawa says growing up in the countryside helped her to appreciate wildlife. But the tigers and lions? “Marlon Perkins’ ‘Wild Kingdom,’” she says.
“I like drawing mice as mice, tigers as tigers,” she says. “I don’t think I need to make the animals kawaii. They are already kawaii to me.”
Kayukawa, a Seattle resident for the past decade, has been getting more international attention of late. From Nov. 13 to Dec. 1, she will take part in a group exhibition in London, and through Jan. 16, she’ll be showing in the SugiPop! exhibition at the Portsmouth Museum of Art in New Hampshire.
Asked if it is difficult navigating between two cultures, she shrugs it off. “After all, anime itself was made in America,” she says, referring to how the godfather of anime, Osamu Tezuka, was first inspired by Disney movies. Check out her latest works at: sweetyumiko.com

“KUKKII TAIMU” - Cookie Time 20x14in.  Acrylic and Ink on canvas  © Yumiko Kayukawa

“ICHIGO NO ARASHI” - Strawberry Storm 15x30 in. Acrylic and Ink on canvas
© Yumiko Kayukawa

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