I went to Jun Matsushima’s drawing group at a renovated elementary school that serves as a community centre in Shinagawa, Tokyo the other day. I was a little late, but the model was even later because he had lost his wallet. That might have caused his bad attitude but probably not. I almost got into verbal fisticuffs with him over the term, “gaijin“. To me them’s fighting words. Regardless of my personal feelings, he came dressed as a typical Japanese delinquent and brought the long stick that is often used in gang fights. His clothes hid his body and his movements. He was playing an uncouth character and used it to his advantage. Although his early poses were typical of a Japanese male with attitude (pretending to smoke or urinate in the street), his later poses were more dynamic. We are meant to learn from such challenges, aren’t we?

NOTE: Interesting how the paper shows up more blue after being uploaded here. The photos were not as blue or green in iPhoto. I guess something decided to compensate for the blue crayon and pencils that I used. MZ