28 Facts About George Tsutakawa

George Tsutakawa was an American painter and sculptor best known for his avant-garde bronze fountain designs.

George Tsutakawa attended the University of Washington, where, after serving in the US Army during World War Two, he became a teacher.

George Tsutakawa rose to international prominence as a fountain designer in the 1960s and 1970s.

George Tsutakawa was born February 22,1910, in Seattle, Washington.

George Tsutakawa was named in honor of George Washington.

George Tsutakawa's parents, Shozo and Hisa, were both born in Japan.

George Tsutakawa was the fourth of nine children, all of whom, except for his eldest sister, were born in the US.

George's father and two uncles ran a successful import-export business, Tsutakawa Company, shipping mainly lumber and scrap metal to Japan, and general goods from Japan to the US.

George Tsutakawa moved to his mother's hometown of Fukuyama, Japan, at age seven, along with his siblings, while his father remained in Seattle.

George Tsutakawa's mother died of influenza in 1918; his father remarried.

George Tsutakawa's grandparents introduced him to traditional Japanese art forms such as Kabuki and Noh drama, Sumi-e painting, calligraphy, wood-block printing, ceramics, flower arranging, and the tea ceremony; at the same time, he studied European and American art, and developed a lifelong love of Western classical music.

George Tsutakawa showed promise as an artist, but to his father's disappointment he was a mediocre student with little interest in joining the family business.

George Tsutakawa visited and informally studied with Kamekichi Tokita, Kenjiro Nomura, and other older artists from Seattle's vibrant Asian-American arts community.

At the urging of Broadway High art teacher Hannah Jones, George Tsutakawa enrolled in the University of Washington, where he studied under sculptor Dudley Pratt, who guided him both artistically and in the craft of producing large sculpture.

George Tsutakawa worked with Alexander Archipenko, a renowned sculptor who occasionally taught classes at the U of W Tsutakawa paid his tuition by working at a grocery owned by his uncle, and by working summers at a cannery in Alaska, which gave him the opportunity to visit native villages, examine the carvings on ceremonial buildings and totem poles, and talk to carvers.

George Tsutakawa made drawings and linocuts of fish, fishermen, the canneries, and the dramatic Alaskan landscape.

George Tsutakawa continued to paint and make prints, but, when it came time to declare his major, chose sculpture.

George Tsutakawa himself, as a male, US-born Nisei of military age, was drafted into the Army.

George Tsutakawa was later assigned to duty teaching Japanese language at a Military Intelligence school in Minnesota.

In 1947 Ayame and George Tsutakawa were married at a Buddhist temple in Seattle.

George Tsutakawa did several commissioned pieces - including sculpture, door carvings, and gates - for local businesses and institutions.

In 1956 George Tsutakawa travelled to Japan for the first time in nearly thirty years, visiting an exhibition of his and Horiuchi's work at the Yoseida Gallery in Tokyo and reuniting with family members.

In 1958 George Tsutakawa was asked to design and build a fountain for the new main Seattle Central Library being built in downtown Seattle.

George Tsutakawa accepted, although he had never created a fountain before.

Almost by happenstance, George Tsutakawa had found a new medium for his artistic energies.

George Tsutakawa often executed two or three fountain commissions a year, all while continuing to teach at the University of Washington and pursue his interests in other art forms.

In 1976 George Tsutakawa retired after 34 years of teaching Art and Architecture at the University of Washington.

George Tsutakawa later described seeing more than twenty such piles against a backdrop of Mount Everest as the most exciting experience of his life.