<Begin Segment 23>

[Begin walking tour through home and garden, viewing George Tsutakawa's artwork]

TL: Tell us a little bit about... anything we walk by. [Laughs]

ME: Which way are we going to go?

AT: Do you want me to say a few words about this? [Gestures to two small sculptures, side by side]

ME: Oh great!

AT: George did this soapstone carving when he was a student at the university; taking anatomy, I guess. So it's an old piece, but it's quite well done. And I have just a few more of his early pieces, but mostly after our marriage, he started to do abstraction. Shall we go down?

We are hooked, aren't we. [In front of bamboo trees] This tree is a short clump and in about six, seven years it's grown this big. It comes out everywhere. This has gone under the ground. [Gestures to smaller tree] This is another new one coming up, it is in good condition now.

[Points to small fountain] This is George's very first fountains that he designed for the public library downtown, and it was a half scale model. We only keeping it for historical reason. It doesn't work.

[Walks to several large sculptures] These are Gerry's sculptures that he is doing commission in Bellingham University. There are three pieces that's going together. Doesn't look like very much now, but I think it will be quite nice after it's in place.

The mural fresco... [Walks to rear of house] I have everything around here. This is a fresco that, it was also George's master thesis. You see, in Mexico you'll find these frescos on the side of the buildings. It's usually outdoor paintings, but we never really put it up in the right position or anything so it's kind of deteriorating now. But I have an oil painting of the similar, upstairs in the house. And this is the shop, welding shop.

[Indicates small fountain] And one of his fountain. It -- doesn't have a pump so it's not working very well. I just put water in it. This was originally designed for the science center on the Seattle Center ground, and I think there's one there, very similar.

We have a nice view. The trees are getting taller.

This stone? [Points to stone in garden] Yes. It says, "Ima yara ne ba itsu dekiru? Washi ga yara ne ba dare ga yaru." This is the saying of a very famous Japanese sculptor named Denchu, and it says, "If I don't do it now, when would it get done? And if I don't do it, then who else gonna' do it?" So it's a nice words. I like it, so I had it engraved on this stone. This artist come from the same area where George grew up, in Japan.

The parents live here in this house, [Points to neighbor's house] and they built this house for their daughter when she was married; and so these two are related. And when we moved here, it was just nothing but beautiful lawn here. The front, there was no tree, no bushes, anything here, but lawn; and after so many years, we planted too many other things. [Laughs] So, it's in not very good shape now.

[Shows small sculpture] This is one of George's stone carving from his master thesis. And it's an original stone, and we are making a bronze copies of this for his tombstone. And it's in the foundry yet. And these two lions [In front of sculpture] are supposed to be the guardian of the spirit. His early sculpture.

[In front of large sculpture] George's sculpture, he called it, "Evil Eye on I-90." And was turned the other way, and he used to look down the bridge, and seeing all this traffic, and that's (why) he called it, Evil Eye on I-90; he didn't like the traffic. But after this was in the exhibition, somehow Gerard put it the other way so you had to look that way. [Laughs] We can't see the bridge now anyway, with all the trees have grown. But that's the name of the sculpture is Evil Eye on I-90.

And this is our son Marcus's house. [Points to neighboring house] This house is older than this house. It's a very old house. And then these pine trees here, I brought them back from Cascade mountain after we went matsutake tori, and they were about this size, and now it's grown about 30 feet high. You can see how big they are from here.

It's been a few years. George's father came to Seattle as a import/export businessman, and there was a house that the father built near Kobe, Nishinomiya, and the house looks very much like this house, only a little smaller scale. And there's a couple of pine trees right in front of the house, so George liked that idea.

TL: Even if people couldn't see it, they would understand what you are talking about, because the traffic on the bridge is...

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.