Tadao Okazaki (Tokyo. 1943) is a Japanese artist. Okazaki and his ancestors have belonged to the Soto Sect of Zen Buddhism. Today, he lives in the Japanese North-east by former Fushiguro Village where his ancestors and parents had lived. His parents were successful wholesale merchants in Tokyo until the World War II. Two of his mother's brothers were air force pilots and died over the Pacific:
Education
Fukushima High School, Fukushima: 3 years—In addition to conventional studies, he continued the study of representative painting, and his watercolor was selected and awarded special prize in The National Student Fine Art Exhibition, Tokyo English C350-A204, Creative Writing, Poetry, University of Wisconsin- Extension, Madison, Wisconsin; July 12, 1994 Elements of Effective Writing, Writer's Digest School, Cincinnati, Ohio; December 15, 1989
Non-conventional school education
Charles Reid, Member, The National Academy of Design, U.S.A. and The Century Club, New York—Okazaki was taught watercolor techniques for over five years. Kay Sato, Fine Artist and art teacher at Fushiguro and Date schools, Fukushima, Japan Toru Suzuki, Ceramicist, Fukushima, Japan Tom McKeown, Poet, Wisconsin
Related work experience
2013–2012- The 3-11 triple disaster placed Tad in the tragedy and heroic efforts for recovery. Okazaki invited the stricken Fukushima and Tokyo audience into the wide Ma void of his paintings, and encouraged them to use it in their traditional manner at the times of hardships—writing in the Ma space one word each from the Heart Sutra, the central Zen teaching of Buddha stating the physical basis of all being: That nothing stays the same, that All are nothing. 2006- Joined Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Andy Warhol et al. at the ATOA auction at Chelsea Museum, New York, November 13. – To build a fund to provide a forum for critical discussions in the visual arts. Kay Sato, Fine Artist and teacher at Fushiguro and Date schools, Fukushima, Japan. – Sato was a graduate of The Musashino Art University, Tokyo, Japan, one of the oldest and most prestigious private art schools in Japan. He painted mostly representative landscapes and still-life's and regularly exhibited in Tokyo and Fukushima solo and group shows. In addition to tutoring art school candidates, and to giving private lessons, he taught fine art classes in public schools in Fukushima. He preached a spiritual approach in addition to teaching the rules of image-making. He imposed Okazaki the strict principles of representative painting. To Okazaki's eye, Kay Sato wanted to protect him from the emerging abstract paintings which "lacked talent or discipline." It was in the 1950s and 1960s. He was though a modest person, and never boasted about his successful Christian families, the prestigious art school he graduated from or prizes he received. He died in the early 1990s at his home by the village where Okazaki lived. Toru Suzuki, Ceramicist, Fukushima, Japan—Suzuki studied ceramics under Saichi Matumoto of Kutani; at Ibaraki Ceramics School; and under Mamoru Teramoto of Kasama, Japan. His works were accepted and/or awarded prizes in many exhibitions. The galleries of major department stores have hosted his solo exhibitions. He has appeared in TV's, and teaches at public and private classes. His works are collected by professionals and artists including a member of the National Academy of Design, USA. He currently keeps Tohzanbo Kama Kiln, and lives in Kohri, Fukushima. Tom McKeown, Poet, Wisconsin—McKeown is an American poet; Thomas Shanks McKeown, born on September 29, 1937, in Evanston, Illinois. He taught Okazaki the principle supporting both visual and verbal, and possibly many other arts. He learned from him simple images and lean words—which joined Okazaki's blood naturally. His poems appeared in Atlantic Monthly, Harpers, The New yorker, Yale Review et., and Three Hundred Tigers (Zephyr Press 1994) and other books of his poetry. University of Wisconsin poetry writing course—Their English course C350‐A204, Creative Writing, Poetry, was where Okazaki was lucky to be taught by Tom McKeown. Okazaki completed it July 12, 1994, with a "Very Good to Excellent" evaluation.
Honors and awards
Full Member: Hudo-Kai, Tokyo 2003
Star Exhibitor: The Photographic Society of America, 1979
Honors: 1978 North American International Photographic Exhibition; 1978 Southwest International Exhibition of Photography; 1978 Northwest International Exhibition; 1977 Toronto International Salon; 1963 Japanese National Student Fine Art Exhibition.