The Legacy of Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani

Written By Diane Freaney

This exhibition catalogue has been a long time coming.

I promised the folks who visited The Exhibit of the Art of Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani at the Emerson Street House in Portland Oregon (May 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018), an exhibition catalogue, documenting each piece in the Exhibit and providing translations for the old Japanese descriptions on some pieces. Jan Landis, Kaleidoscope Photography, photographed the thirty pieces of the Exhibit as they hung in the Emerson Street House.

Mother and Baby by Jimmy Mirikitani

Roger Shimomura, widely recognized as the Artist of the WWII Concentration Camps, sought Jimmy Mirikitani out in Washington Square Park, on periodic trips to New York City from his home at the University of Kansas. Linda Hattendorf, often called Jimmy’s Angel, because of The Cats of Mirikitani, a documentary which she produced, directed and starred in, filmed Roger and Jimmy meeting on the streets of New York.

After The Cats of Mirikitani won the audience award at Tribeca Film Festival in 2006, Jimmy had the first solo exhibition of his art at the Wing Luke Museum. After the Wing Luke Museum Exhibit closed, the exhibit then traveled to the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at New York University, the University of North Texas, and Portland's Nikkei Legacy Center, among others. In 2010 his work was featured in an exhibit of Japanese American Internment Camp artwork at the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery, The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942 – 1946.

Make Art Not War from the Cats of Mirikitani website

Linda inherited all Jimmy’s art after he passed on October 21, 2012. Roger Shimomura worked with Linda and the Wing Luke Museum of Asian Pacific American Experience in Seattle Washington to have three items purchased by Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM). Unfortunately SAAM lists these items as Not On View as we go to press.

This is the first of three Newsletters | The Legacy of Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani which will drop between now and the publication date of October 29, 2022. The third newsletter will include a special Membership offer available to folks who visited the Exhibit of the Art of Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani at the Emerson Street House (May 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018) as well as anyone who wanted to attend but missed the exhibit because its time at the Emerson Street House for a myriad of reasons.

Until October 29, 2022, folks can view the exhibit on https://www.dianefreaney.com/jimmy-tsutomu-mirikitani.

Diane Freaney

I have been seated at the table – rather, more accurately, been seated behind the white men seated at the table and told to hold my tongue – at the launch of some of the most radical new business models of the last century.

I have had a front row seat for every new finance and/or economic theory that came down the pike.

This is a dubious honor. I have watched these same new business models crash and burn, take jobs, destroy families, make ghost towns of cities, compromise our health and well-being, and rob us of our happiness. With the economic meltdown of 2008, I watched as my retirement fund plummeted 42% from the top of the market in 2007 to the bottom in 2009.

My life has been magical. I have over 70 years life/work experience and an excellent educational background.

Syracuse University (1965) – In my accounting courses, I learned to fill in forms and play games with numbers. In anthropology and public speaking, I learned storytelling and gained an appreciation of other cultures.

Harvard Business School – Corporate Finance Executive Education (1982) – I learned about OPM (other people’s money), the strategy that brought the global financial markets to their knees in 2008.

University of Pennsylvania – Organizational Dynamics (1999) – I learned that student’s work is only valued when it follows a structured academic path. My master’s thesis, “A New Model for the Creative Use of College Endowments to Reduce College Tuition” would have prevented today’s student loan crisis. Penn had no mechanism for “the administrators” to listen to students.

Bainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI) (2013) – I learned the importance of social media to listening deeply and delivering my message.

At an early age, I learned to communicate by listening. At my current age, I feel driven to share the knowledge and understanding amassed during my lifetime. Now I am speaking out.

—Diane Freaney, The Cat Lady


https://www.dianefreaney.com