Fumiko Kimura Japanese American, December 21, 1929-March 29, 2023

Fumiko Kimura (December 21, 1929 – March 29, 2023) was a Japanese American artist celebrated for her expressive sumi-e, watercolor, and mixed-media works that combined Japanese tradition with contemporary Western abstraction. Born in Rexburg, Idaho, she spent part of her childhood in Japan during World War II, an experience that deeply shaped her artistic identity and lifelong connection to calligraphy, Zen aesthetics, and the rhythms of nature.

After returning to the United States, Kimura earned a B.S. in Chemistry and later an M.A. in Art Education from the University of Puget Sound. Though academically trained in the sciences, her artistic path became the defining force in her life. She studied traditional ink painting and calligraphy in Japan, including training with the Kyoto Nanga School and at the Senju-in Zen Temple, before developing her own distinctive, experimental approach.

Her six-decade career spanned watercolor, sumi ink, acrylics, collage, and recycled material artworks. She co-founded the Puget Sound Sumi Artists and taught for many years in the Pacific Northwest, inspiring a community of painters interested in ink art, abstraction, and nature-based expression. Her work is represented in numerous private and public collections, including the Tacoma Art Museum, and was featured in her illustrated memoir Persimmon and Frog: My Life and Art (2021). Kimura passed away at the age of 93, leaving behind a legacy defined by cultural duality, experimentation, and poetic sensitivity.