George Tsutakawa Fountain Tour, North Striders, October 30, 2018 Guide: Mayumi Tsutakawa Starting point: Starbucks at 12th Ave. and Columbia St., across from Fountain/Sculpture locations: Seattle University Central Plaza, 1989 Seattle Central Community College main building, 1973 Sheraton Hotel lobby, 1982 6th Ave. and Seneca Street, 1967, Naramore Fountain , 1960, Fountain of Wisdom King County Administration Building (5th Ave. side), 1986, Maynard Ave. S, and S. Jackson St., 1978 International Children’s Park (Gerard Tsutakawa), 1981 Wing Luke Asian Museum Gallery, and entry sculpture (Gerard Tsutakawa) 2008 Keiro Home, 16th Ave. and Yesler Way, 1987 Back to Seattle University Starbucks Biography of George Tsutakawa George Tsutakawa (1910-1997) was a second generation Japanese American (Nisei), born in Seattle in 1910. He was the son of a businessman who came to Seattle in 1904 and operated an import-export business. George was born on Federal Avenue on Capitol Hill and attended Lowell School until the age of seven, when his father moved the family to Japan. He lived for the next 10 years in the Okayama/Fukuyama area, on the Inland Sea, which he remembered with fondness as he later settled in the Puget Sound region. But he was a disinterested student, preferring to practice his drawing and calligraphy. As his father wanted him to pursue a business career, the two had a falling out and, at the age of 16, George was sent back to Seattle where he lived with relatives. He never saw his parents again. George attended Broadway High School and studied with excellent art teachers. There he met other emerging Northwest artists such as and . He went on to receive his BFA degree at the University of in 1937, all the while working and living in his relatives’ produce stand at Rainier Avenue S. and S. Jackson Street. George was an active artist, organizing and exhibiting in local and national exhibitions. During WWII he volunteered for the U.S. Army and taught Japanese language in Military Intelligence School in Minneapolis. He also visited his sister’s family, incarcerated at Tule Lake Camp in northern California. There, he was introduced to Ayame Kyotani, an outstanding student of Japanese traditional dance. She became his wife through an arranged marriage. Ayame was also second generation Japanese-American, born in Hollywood, in 1924. She, too, had been sent to live in the Okayama area of Japan before returning to Sacramento. After the war, she came to Seattle and the couple married in 1947. George received his MFA and first taught design in the UW School of Architecture, later teaching in the School of Art. He taught at the for more than 37 years. He and Ayame had four children and settled in a large historic, and art-filled home in the Mount Baker district of Seattle. This home studio includes an extensive collection of the early artwork of George Tsutakawa, his block prints, sumi paintings, and wood and metal sculptures, as well as models and photographs of the 75 fountain sculptures he created in the US, Canada and Japan. Tsutakawa’s professional art career spanned 60 years. At first, he used oil paints to explore abstract themes. Later, at the urging of his friend, the internationally recognized artist , he began to explore his cultural roots and used sumi paint to depict landscapes and sea life in his extensive art career. His son, Gerard Tsutakawa, worked with George in the fabrication of fountain sculptures starting in his teen years, learning to weld and produce bronze sculpture as an assistant to his father. Gerard has continued his own independent career, working in the studios that his father had established. END (A longer version of this biography is found on HistoryLink.org)