© All Images copyrighted by Misao Adachi '98 - '09

Born in Miyagi Prefecture in Northern Japan, Misao Adachi grew up and studied painting in Tokyo. His formal training as a painter was completed during ten years of apprenticeships with two Japanese Masters of the kanban tradition. Kanban are hand-painted posters or billboards used to advertise movies, variety shows and the like, and Misao's training was conducted in a purely traditional manner. As one of the last live-in apprentices to follow this tradition, Misao's initial job was to clean up the studio and his work was rewarded with the right to observe the master at work. Only after a year of such observation was he allowed to even hold a brush and then only to fill in some of the background paint for his master. The learning process was slow and demanding, but such training nurtured the patience needed for the intricate details characteristic of Misao's work today - paintings that represent both this traditional training and his living experience in the States.

The majority of Misao paintings are in acrylics and oils, although he also works with watercolors. His objective in life-like paintings of people, animals, flowers, trees, and the like is not to create reproductions of his subjects, but to capture the essence of their being. Misao's own cultural background has taught him that every natural being has a 'spirit' and his work manifests an inherent desire to give expression to the universality of these 'spirits.' Misao's creative process brings to mind Japan's first Nobel Laureate in literature Kawabata Yasunari's description of a poet, "Seeing the moon, he becomes the moon, the moon seen by him becomes him. He sinks into nature, becomes one with nature." And, Misao's ultimate goal is to have those who view his paintings be, as Kawabata explains, "awakened by the beauty" of nature and then "think most of those close to us, and want them to share the pleasure."

After traveling back and forth between Japan and the States and working as a commercial artist and illustrator in both countries during the past twenty years, Misao and his family recently relocated in St. Petersburg, Florida. Here, Misao has found a new abundance of natural images to work with, as he continues on his creative journey through the 'spirits' of nature.