The Cats of Mirikitani

Last week I watched the documentary regarding the beautiful artist Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani which was presented by Independent Lens and I have continued thinking about Jimmy and the Japanese people who were sent to the internment camps following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Jimmy's beautiful face had me mesmorised and the images he painted to express his life story deeply moved me. Oh how I'd love to have a piece of art created by Jimmy Mirikitani, even one of his unfinished sketches or just a doodle would make my heart sing.



"Jimmy Mirikitani grew up in Hiroshima survived the Japanese American internment camps in California and was living on the streets of New York by the time the World Trade Center came down. Perhaps it's ironic, or sad, that he is an artist whose main message is peace. But how did Mirikitani end up on the streets of Manhattan and what amazing secrets are hidden in his past? This is an amazing portrait of the man, but also a fascinating example of the process of documentary filmmaking. What started as the filmmaker's interest in the peaceful artist blossomed into something neither of them would have ever expected."

Two of Jimmy Mirikitani's paintings of the Tule Lake internment camp.






Jimmy Mirikitani's painting, Mother and Baby.




DVD image from The Cats of Mirikitani
(Jimmy's beautiful face)



"Make Art Not War"



Link: Tule Lake Scrapbook