Kimura Hiroko

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Kimura Hiroko 木村浩子


quote
Building a world without barriers, borders
Disabled trailblazer Hiroko Kimura
has waged a lifelong battle to build bridges,
break down boundaries




COURTESY OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION
OF MOUTH AND FOOT PAINTING ARTISTS

I Love People,
I Love The Earth,
I Love Myself !


Born in 1937, Kimura was diagnosed at an early age with cerebral palsy, which racked her body with spasms and left her with firm control over only her left foot. When she was a young girl, her father was killed in World War II and her mother raised her in poverty in Yamaguchi Prefecture.
For a while, her mother's love insulated her from many of the prejudices against disabled people, but when Kimura was 13, her mother died and she was taken in by relatives. For the next three years, she was treated in a manner all too familiar to disabled people in the 1950s: Regarding her as a guilty secret to be hidden out of sight, her relations shut her in a cupboard-size room where summer saw her defenseless against clouds of mosquitoes, and winter left her shivering beneath thin blankets.

Abandoned like this for over two years, her thoughts grew increasingly dark until Kimura came up with a plan.
snip
Due to her palsied limbs, doctors maintained that she would never be able to stand, let alone move by herself. Kimura was determined to prove them wrong. It took her 11 full days to rise out of her wheelchair, then three months of hard practice to totter a meter. Her constant falls left her covered in cuts, scars and orange splashes of antiseptic cream, but one year later, she was able to walk unassisted — an achievement that broadened her world infinitely and allowed her to pursue the focus of the next stage of her life: poetry.

If only they used for the handicapped
The money spent on just one rocket . . .
My friend said smiling a wry smile
And rubbing her benumbed leg



The smell of the soap
Makes me feel a pain
Tonight on my breasts
That have never known caress


In 1964, she spotted an ad for a haiga class and decided to attend. Haiga, a form of art that combines poetry and painting, was not entirely new to Kimura, who was already an accomplished writer. However, painting was a skill she'd never attempted before.
snip
One afternoon in the mid-1980s, Hiroko Kimura was taking a rest from sightseeing on a park bench in Adelaide, southern Australia. As she was enjoying the warm sunshine, she spotted the words "Japs go home" carved into the wood.
snip
Through the efforts of Jellie and his wife, Phylis, Rogers and countless other volunteers and helpers, Kimura navigated the plethora of planning permissions, fire inspections and red tape necessary for opening a bed and breakfast in Australia. It would take over two decades, and they encountered several near-calamitous setbacks along the way, but finally in 2004 an Australian branch of Tsuchi no Yado opened in the Adelaide Hills.

Read more here :
source : Japan Times, September 28, 2010


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PEACE ON WHEELS - IKIRU (TO LIVE)
http://www.peaceonwheels.net/

. . . Hiroko's Paintings . Gallery

... Kokoro ... The Heart





Tsuchi no yado - Inn of the Earth

Tsuchi No Yado Okinawa was set up by Hiroko in 1984 as a guest house catering for people with or without disabilities, shortly after she decided to make the blue watered islands of Okinawa her home.

Okinawa
. . .www.peaceonwheels.net / okinawa

Australia
http://www.tsuchinoyado.com.au/



Tsuchi no Yado


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Japanese Reference

木村 浩子（きむら ひろこ）


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Related words

***** Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets　


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