Mayumi Oda – illustratör

30th Anniversary Edition Coming March, 2024.With beautifully crafted words and exuberant watercolor illustrations, Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty offers a poetic and empowering message for world peace. Recognizing "we are right on the edge of destroying ourselves," this modern allegory inspires taking joyful steps to end violence. It expands upon the idea that "we are all in the circle together," and presents a timeless parable for readers of all ages. The Haiku-like text delivers a call to "make a new earth grow beneath our feet."In the playful style of 12th century Japanese picture scrolls, Mayumi Oda's art depicts humans as animals who lose their way when their leaders become confused and drawn to violence. It is up to each individual?the frog who plants a thriving garden, the cat who supports an elderly neighbor as they walk?to create a better world through simple acts of kindness. The message of this book is the sweet realization that each person can become an agent of goodness and beauty.This twentieth-anniversary, full-color edition, with a new foreword by venerable peacemaker Desmond Tutu, is dedicated to Fukushima recovery in the face of world climate crises. All royalties will be donated to community resiliency across boundaries and antinuclear advocacy.

Known to many as "the Matisse of Japan," Mayumi Oda combines traditional Japanese and Buddhist iconography with her own unique sense of color, line, and movement. In this collection, her groundbreaking artwork is paired with essays by San Francisco Zen Center and Green Gulch Farm Zen Center practitioners (including Richard Baker, Linda Ruth Cutts, Wendy Johnson, Edward Espe Brown, and Norman Fischer) who have owned, loved, and been changed by Oda''s work over the years.Mayumi Oda''s internationally-recognized artwork plays with traditional Japanese and Buddhist images, refiguring them as celebrations of the feminine and the natural world. Where most traditional Buddhist iconography features male figures, Oda introduces female "Goddesses" that seem to jump off the page, imbued with the vibrancy of Oda''s color and line.Originally from Japan, Oda settled in Muir Beach, California in the 1970s and began practicing and painting at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, which Oda calls her "California Buddha Field." Divine Gardens pairs Oda''s artwork with essays by her fellow practitioners, for whom Oda''s artwork has been a constant companion. Suitable for study by art students or for display on a coffee table, Divine Gardens captures the essence of Mayumi Oda''s art and life as a Zen practitioner. The forty-five full-color works of art and twenty-four essays contained in the collection are a joyful celebration of her work and the community forged through the years at the San Francisco Zen Center.