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Tomihiro Hoshino
 Tomihiro Hoshino was
a 24-year-old gymnastics teacher when he injured his neck demonstrating a double
somersault to his junior high school students. Since then he has been completely paralyzed
from the neck down.
In a split second, he went from an active life, enjoying gymnastics and mountain climbing,
to lying motionless in Gunma Orthopedic Hospital, where he remained for the next nine
years. Respiratory problems and other complications brought him close to death several
times and he recalls that there were even moments when he wanted to die. Gradually,
however, his physical condition stabilized and improved, and with this, his mental
composure returned.
The next big turning point in Hoshino' life came in 1972, two years after his accident.
One of Hoshino's fellow patients was being transferred to a different hospital and asked
all the people in the ward to sign his canvas beach hat as a momento. Paralyzed, Tomihiro
was at a complete loss how to sign the hat, until, with the help of his mother, he managed
to hold a pen in his mouth and painstakingly write "Tomo."
"Later," Hoshino recalls, "I noticed some flowers that a friend had brought
me as a gift in the window of my hospital room. Every day I gazed at those flowers until
it seemed they had become bigger than I was. When I couldn't sleep at night I felt as if
those motionless flowers and I existed in the universe in complete isolation ...I felt
that God loved me as much as He loves such things of beauty."
Wanting to express his heartfelt joy in this revelation, Hoshino began to write poems and
paint flowers, gradually developing his unusual technique. "I had never made a
special study of painting or poetry," he explains, "but I believed that if I
depicted the things God had created honestly, as they actually are, I could without a
doubt create beautiful pictures."
Hoshino was baptized as a Christian in his hospital bed in 1974, after reading a bible
passage which he paraphrases as follows: "It is ironic that it was only after I had
an accident that prevented me from being able to walk through nature that I could fully
appreciate its beauty." Hoshino continued to paint until he had amassed enough work
to hold a show. His first exhibition opened in his hometown of Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture,
four months before he was finally able to leave the hospital.
Now a married man, Hoshino is still paralyzed and continues to produce paintings by
holding a brush in his mouth. He has produced hundreds of works, many of which have been
published in illustrated books of poems and essays - including " From an Abyss"
and "Journey of the Wind" - and displayed at the Tomihiro Hoshino Museum (see homepage) and
exhibitions around the world. Hoshino has also been the subject of Japanese television
dramas and some of his poetry was set recently to music for a performance by the
International Christian University High School Choir.
Hoshino modestly asks that we not regard his work as the product of a handicapped man or
allow emotions of sympathy or admiration to stand in the way of our natural appreciation.
He hopes his pictures will stand as superb works of art in themselves.
Nevertheless, English translators of his poems maintain that his work is pleasing to the
eye, fascinating to the mind and also is a shining example of human endeavor in the face
of almost insuperable hardship. It is humbling to think that, but for a twist of fate, the
world might never have encountered this incredible talent.
Cathy Frances
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