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"Capturing Cultrual Landscapes" by Debbie Berg
Hiroshi Shimazaki is painting the world. All of it. He travels the globe, country by country, encountering the culture and splendour of each and bringing home with him to Lethbridge tiny mementos of what he finds in the form of exquisite sketches and studies. One can experience something of the essence of the many countries he has visited, such as Iran, Mexico, Ireland, Japan and many others, by simply viewing the paintings in the Shimazaki collection, which are the outcomes of these same small studies.
Dr. Hiroshi Shimazaki is a professor in the Faculty of Management at the University of Lethbirdge and teaches courses related to International management. He is a cultural geographer and his academic pursuits over the years, giving lectures, attending conferences and doing research, have provided him the opportunity to travel the world and to draw and paint a variety of cultural landscapes, "the outcome of man's endeavour to improve his life." His beautiful landscapes always include some evidence of man and his energy as he interacts with the energy of nature. We see cities, buildings, streets, houses, monuments, and people themselves in their colourful, natural surroundings.
Hiroshi left Japan in 1967 and after a brief stay in Guatemala, made Canada his home. As he traveled and studied, his interests in painting grew. The sketches that fill many study books are his way of recording what he sees and sometimes serve as a postcard to friends. The pencil drawings, done with coloured pencil and watercolour paint, are made quickly, often through a bus or automobile window, and capture the key elements of a scene. Back in his Lethbridge home studio, the sketches become watercolour paintings. In the early years, they were usually small, like the sketches, but more often now the paintings are much larger. Watercolour in his preferred medium. It can be used on-site for the studies and it serves him well in the interpretation of the subject matter as he experiences it. He strives for simplicity in his work, capturing the essence of a place, the mood he feels, oftentimes doing so without a drawing but with colour alone. Indeed, his work has evolved from early detailed drawings with a more opaque, full range of colours to lighter, freer, more suggestive works with less drawing and more transparent glazes. Blues and yellows figure frequently in the most recent pieces. They are stunning, even breathtaking and remarkably alive.
The paintings of Hiroshi Shimazaki have appeared as illustrations in many of his books, on calendars and as postcards. He sees himself as an amateur artist and paints for sheer enjoyment. His art provides him a never-ending journey of "exploration, excitement and experimentation." Equally important for him is to share his efforts. He has participated in many exhibits, frequently in Lethbridge, and most recently showed twenty-nine works in Schmalkalden, Germany. Future shows are planned in Europe and Japan and there is promise in the near future of another book featuring his art.
He has donated much of his artwork to academic institutions and to public collections in countries all over the world - often to support schools and educational causes. In light of the global nature of this beautiful body of work we are most fortunate that the very talented Hiroshi Shimazaki makes his home and shares much of his time and the gift of his art with us here in Southern Alberta.
Debbie
Berg, "Capturing Cultural Landscapes, Living Profile: Hiroshi
Shimazaki," Lethbridge Living, Fall 2001, P.
21.
"The World in his Paintbox"
Artist and academic, Hiroshi Shimazaki has used watercolor paintings to record his journeys to more than two dozen countries.
Academic, artist, author, world traveler. All descriptive words which broadly silhouette, yet only brush over the remarkably diverse character of Professor Hiroshi Shimazaki.
A member of the University of Lethbridge Management Faculty since the late 1970s, Shimazaki began teaching geography at the Institution in 1976. He arrived in Canada nine years earlier from his native Japan, via summer school in Guatemala, a short vacation in Mexico and a detour to the University of Western Ontario, after a quick stop in Detroit.
Colorful memories of these early years include working in London, Ontario's exclusive Sunningdale Golf Club as a bartender in exchange for accommodation which allowed him to continue his studies and learn English. The kindness extended to him, plus humbling experiences such as insulating his clothes with discarded newspaper to keep warm, all combined to mold the scholar and gentleman he was to become.
Shimazaki's academic career encompassing both management and human geography has allowed him to incorporate his passion of travel and painting into a marvelous lifelong journey. While working on research projects around the world, he has always recorded his excursions through postcard-size watercolors which acutely capture the sights, sounds, and smells of far off countries. Traveling compactly, he carries a five inch by two inch paint box of 21 colors, a single paint brush, a tiny plastic bottle for water and a small log book in which to record the sites before him. There is never a need for a camera, when a single painting can uniquely capture the spirit of a location.
Painting under the name Kojun, he has captured the diverse character of our world's landscapes in watercolor - a pastime which brings great joy to Shimazaki. Green dots on a world map in his home studio indicate more than 25 countries he has illustrated with paint on paper. Countries, and the people who inhabit them, from Panama, Argentina, Northern Ireland, Russia, Italy, Spain, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Turkey and Australia are documented through the professor's artistic work.
More recently he has allowed himself the time to paint larger landscape pieces. Many adorn the walls of his west Lethbridge home, while others have graciously been given to institutions like the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto, Japan, as a memento of his sojourn there to research the Japanese privatization process focussing on railways.
While a visiting professor at the Center last spring, Shimazaki made the time to explore the Japanese city on foot, "allowing myself to succumb to the fascination of this splendid ancient capital," he said.
Living Kyoto, a collection of Shimazaki's paintings of the city accompanied by commentary written by an historical scholar at the Research Center, is to be published soon. Shimazaki is praised by the Director-General of the Research Centre for his splendid paintings which he describes as both Japanese and international in flavor. The works have also been identified as poetically rich watercolors that capture the pulse of the ancient capital as it beats today.
While in Kyoto he also painted a series capturing the Research Center campus. These pieces have been reproduced into postcard gift sets to be given to guest educators. Currently the professor is preparing for an art show in Japan entitled "World Landscapes." He expects to have 60 paintings on display for the spring opening in Kyoto.
As an author, Shimazaki has been recognized for seven book publications in English, Japanese and Spanish. Numerous articles and papers on topics from business, geography and history are also attributed to the professor.
Contributions regarding Japanese entrepreneurship and enterprise, such as a Vision in Japanese Entrepreneurship: The Evolution of a Security Entreprise highlights the vivid entrepreneurial creativity of Japanese corporations operating in the domestic and international spheres. Another, Personality in Industry: The Human Side of a Japanese Enterprise examines the role of entrepreneurship in the revitalization of post-war Japan, emphasizing the importance of corporate activity benefiting society at large. Reviews of both publications in the London Times High Education Supplement were notable.
The professor received the Canadian Prime Minister's Award for Publishing in 1994 for best manuscript written in Japanese on a Canadian theme. Canada no Tochi to Hitobito (Canada, Land and People: A Cultural Geography) is an exploration of this country from earliest times. He argues that human beings carry their future within themselves. Here, people's future oriented nature is considered to be a source of the vitality of "culture," defined as the totality of societal creativity. The book also includes landscape sketches completed by Shimazaki.
He has recently completed a manuscript entitled Central America: A World Corridor. Shimazaki believes that just as people's vision has shaped their world over time, so will it continue to hold the key to global prosperity. In this book, the process through which the egocentric political, economic and religious objectives of individuals, corporations and nations outside Central America shaped the "regional character" of this geo-politically significant isthmus is explored. Here, too, Shimazaki uses his pen and ink sketches to support his exploration.
Management Matters, Winter 1998, pp.16-18
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