When Fine arts professor Yukio Ozaki creates art, it is as if he is in a sacred space. A space of silence electrified by thought. Patient anticipation precipitates into a decisive idea that acts, causing material elements to move, form and change.
“Every art form started as a gift to God,” he said as he shook a banyan branch taller than himself during a recent demonstration of Ikebana for the Marianist Educational Associates (MEAs).
Ozaki paused. Despite the crowded room, he connected with a hidden quietness in himself. Decisively he stepped towards the large ceramic vase in front of him, held the branch to the ceiling and with a loud, cleansing breath, suddenly slammed the branch into the prepared vase. Stepping back, he determined that it was good. “A gift to God,” he proclaimed and named it.
Keeping in mind the requested “heaven and earth” theme, Ozaki created three unique floral arrangements. Early that morning before the demonstration, he completed his first arrangement. Using flowers from the field tied to the tip of a bamboo branch, he fastened the bamboo to a palm tree near Henry Hall. The arrangement presented itself to the heavens like a banner. It heralded creation without fanfare or need for human approval.
The second arrangement was the banyan branch placed into the vase with a robust spirit.
During the third arrangement, Ozaki interacted with the audience, answering questions and sharing his method. Discussion ensued on the differences between Western and Japanese perspectives made evident through art form and decisions in the creation process. As he taught, he sorted through his collection of yard cuttings and scrutinized with a hidden agenda. Chosen pieces were pruned for structure and line. Ozaki navigated his way through light and space, creating balance with placement. He deliberately ordered along dark branch lines intermittent moments of orange seed pods, green teardrop leaves and gray lichen grasping at banyan bark.
His teaching manner connected with faculty in the room. “As I watched you carefully and thoughtfully prune the branches and leaves and flowers during the Ikebana demonstration, I realized this is how you teach,” wrote Joan Riggs, director of the Environmental + Interior Design program, in a thank-you email. “You meticulously examine your students’ work and guide them to discover and to discern what is relevant and meaningful and what can be discarded or re-used in a different way. I see all of this as an effort to seek the beauty and wonder of God in all things and circumstances. Your resulting arrangement was unique, interesting, and thought-provoking. I see this in you and in the work your students produce.”
Ozaki joined Chaminade’s faculty in the fall of 1986 and continues to teach ceramics and 3D-design. Since 1973 he established himself as an artist mainly in the medium of ceramics and wood. His artwork has been exhibited in museums and in prestigious art exhibitions nationally and internationally, as well as in Hawaii. Before he was smitten by ceramics, Ozaki studied Ikebana for five years and continues to practice the art form.
Named as a Living Treasure of Hawaiʻi by Honpa Honganji of Hawaiʻi, Ozaki is not only a renowned artist, he is a renowned teacher. He was the first recipient of the Fr. Bolin Faculty Scholarship Award and recognized nationally by the Carnegie Foundation as Professor of the Year. He received the Chaminade Award for Commitment to Marianist Values as well as the Outstanding Tenured Faculty Award. In 2005, he inspired the addition of the Jean E. Rolles and Kiki Tidwell Ceramics Studio and Sculpture Garden between Eiben Hall and the Sullivan Family Library.