Painting by Soichi Watanabe, used with permission by the Overseas Ministries Study Center (OMSC) at Princeton Theological Seminary. You can purchase this and many other artworks by artists in residence at the OSMC in high resolution and without a watermark via the OSMC website .
“A resident of Koshigaya City, Saitama, Japan, Soichi Watanabe was the 2008-09 OMSC artist in residence. Watanabe graduated in 1982 from the Ochanomizu Art School in Tokyo after having earned, a decade earlier, an economics degree from Tohoku Gakuin University in Sendai. He teaches at a private art school that he started in 1982. Following his 1982 graduation, Soichi founded a private art school where he and his wife work together to help others experience the joy of art.
“Soichi was drawn to God as an undergraduate student during a home Bible study when he encountered Mark 8:35: ‘Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.’ Further study of the New Testament led him to realize that he was both ‘stubborn and self-centered.’ He recalls that ‘the richness of the biblical world overwhelmed me and at the same time tortured me.’
“Shortly thereafter he chose to submit his life to God at an evening worship service. ‘I really heard a voice telling me to accept the salvation of Jesus on the cross and to follow him,’ remembers Soichi. From that point on he has been determined to serve God through his abilities. As a follower of Jesus, Soichi points to his faith as the foundation from which he works as an artist. In his art book Jesus Walking With Us (2004), he writes, ‘I realize that [my works] are my own humble responses to God’s calling in my life… . The images are often given to me through the words of God at worship services on Sundays and during my daily devotion. I have the earnest hope that I will go on painting to praise the Lord.'” (Source )
About this image, Watanabe says: “In his book When the Bamboo Bends, Dr. Masao Takenaka wrote about the relationship between Christianity and bamboo. The connection with bamboo is that it symbolizes unselfishness. It has an empty core, but it is flexible and strong, like faith. A fresh wind can blow through a grove of bamboo like the Holy Spirit. In November of 2008 I went to an exhibition of bamboo artwork by contemporary Japanese artists at the Japan Society, which is in front of the United Nations building in New York City. Former president of the Japan Society Richard Wood was a friend of Dr. Takenaka, and also supported the artist in residence program at OMSC. It was in America that I felt the beauty of bamboo and remembered Masao and his ‘bamboo theology.’” (Source: OMSC 2010, p. 34)