Honolulu Weekly

The Chronicles of Tsune, the current exhibition at bibelot gallery, is artist Maile Yawata’s posthumous tribute to her mother, Tsuneko Nakamoto Yawata. A natural storyteller–there is always a sense of something going on, more than meets the eye, in her work. Yawata has created a series of imagined moments, inspired by her mother’s girlhood and later life. Tsune, born in Hawai’i in 1915, was sent alone by ship to Japan to live with a strict aunt when she was 8 years old. Yawata has used that period in Tsune’s life as a pivotal moment, in which boats and water and a young female character come to symbolize both an environment of uncertainty and risk, and a person of definite spirit.

In ‘Leaky Boat,’ one of several drawings done in graphite, ink and watercolor, young Tsune becomes aware that her small rowboat is taking on water; in ‘Sea of Light,’ she rows while facing a skull set in the bow. Such ominous events are counterbalanced by ‘An Unexpected Gift’ and the even more benign ‘Aqua Light,’ in which our young protagonist looks overboard at her own reflection.

Yawata’s considerable drawing skills are honed in a series of reduction woodcuts (where multiple colors are printed from a single block that is successively cut and inked). Here the nature of the medium requires a certain economy of detail, so Yawata has focused on the head of the young girl, partly submerged in the water (as in ‘Swimming in Rain’ and ‘Breathing’) or set against a towering array of mountains (as in ‘Perspective.’) These are some of Yawata’s strongest works and make us want to see more.

If these prints and drawings seem invested with the spirit of kawai (the Japanese aesthetic that suggests ‘cute-with-attitude’), the answer is simple. Yawata readily acknowledges the influence of Yoshitomo Nara and his paintings and drawings of tough little girls. But our money’s on Tsune, who is both plucky and endearing.

The Chronicles of Tsune, recent drawings, prints and paintings by Maile Yawata at bibelot gallery, through June 9.