PinKU, mural, 2015
Japanese chef and visionary artist John H. Sugimura in collaboration with illustrator Jared Tuttle designed the modern-day mural PinKU. Their intense collaboration gives PinKU specific and intentional meaning.
Artist Statement
The eye of the fish illustrates the abstract-geometric emblem used to decorate and identify Sugimura’s samurai heritage and ancestral homeland flag of Nagoya, Japan.
The cherry blossoms represent the friendship shared between Japan and the United States. Lord Mayor Ozaki Yukio’s gift of over 3,000 seedlings represents our country’s deep friendship with Japan and can be remembered every spring in Washington D.C. as well as throughout the year. Sugimura has been inspired by and supported the Ozaki Yukio Memorial Foundation for more than a decade. This foundation promotes world-wide democracy.
The intricate patterns in PinKU replicate the kimono patterns from Kyoto, Japan dating back over 1,000 years. They have been carefully imaged throughout PinKU. These kimono patterns are unique, simple, and fun!
PinKU is the Japanese word for pink.
The mural’s political ideology uses the Japanese flag’s “circle of the sun” in pink to call for the end of violence in the world.
The green in the mural represents reconciliation…
and the white uncomplicatedness.
The vision and imagery was created in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2015.