For 30 Years, Artist Has Helped Students with Disabilities Develop Potential; Artwork Draws Attention with Wonderful Designs

By Tomomi Eguchi / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

0:30 JST, January 10, 2025

ONOJO, Fukuoka — Sawako Matsuzawa, a Western-style painter in Onojo, Fukuoka Prefecture, has been supporting artists with disabilities by helping them further expand their horizons by making unique works of art. More than 10 of her students have been able to hold solo exhibitions or publish collections of their work.

Matsuzawa, 65, hopes that more people will become aware of the potential of people with disabilities.

She has been teaching people with disabilities for more than 30 years, ever since meeting one such boy and accepting him as her student.

From November to December 2024, the 10th annual exhibition displaying works by students of Matsuzawa, among other artists, titled “Minna no charenji ato ten” (An exhibition in which everyone takes on a challenge), was held at Onojo Madokapia, a local facility for educational and cultural events.

Roughly 100 works of art were on display, including acrylic paintings and paper cutouts, created by about 80 people, mostly students of Matsuzawa. They drew attention with their unique use of color and adorable designs.

The exhibitors ranged from an artist who had won a top award at the annual prefectural art exhibition to an elementary school student who had difficulty with anything other than coloring.

“I think many of the works convey energy and power to viewers,” Matsuzawa said. “I want people to feel how great it is to be able to express their beautiful minds in a straightforward way.”

Experiencing new ways of teaching

Matsuzawa began teaching people with disabilities after meeting Kosuke Ota, now 43, from Dazaifu in the prefecture. He was 10 years old at the time. His mother took him to an art and design class taught by Matsuzawa, who was active under the artist name Sawako Kido. The boy had been diagnosed as autistic with intellectual disabilities and could not remain seated for as much as five minutes.

“How should I teach a child with severe disabilities?” Matsuzawa asked herself. Because she had no experience with teaching such children, she considered declining. But she was deeply moved by the enthusiastic look on his mother’s face. After much deliberation, she decided to accept the boy.

As a child, Ota had no interest in painting. Matsuzawa had him start by coloring the clay works he liked to make. He gradually became able to draw pictures by making lines and painting colors over and over again.

Art brought about another big change for Ota. Through the process of creating, he became less prone to panicking.

“I realized that artistic activities are a way for people with difficulties in verbal communication to express their feelings,” Matsuzawa said, recalling that time.

As a result of his works being exhibited at local cultural festivals, other children with disabilities came to her class following word of mouth.

Matsuzawa looked for and developed a suitable teaching method to meet the needs of each child. For example, with children who have difficulty focusing, she devised a method in which the children are given a short time to paint colors and cut colored paper with scissors.

She has also tried to help these children broaden their horizons by exposing them to subjects that they had not been interested in.

Joint exhibitions with city govt

Since 2015, Matsuzawa has cosponsored the annual “Minna no charenji ato ten” exhibition with the Onojo municipal government. She hopes children with disabilities will develop their abilities through taking on challenges for themselves.

As of November 2024, about 70 children and adults with disabilities from Fukuoka and Saga prefectures attend her classes. So far, 12 of her students have held solo exhibitions and five have published collections of their work.

Ota is remarkably active among them. He opened a permanent gallery in October. Additionally, paintings of animals and other subjects by Ota were used in the TV drama “Lion no Kakurega” (“Light of My Lion”), broadcast on the TBS network in 2024, as the works of a young male character with autism spectrum disorder.

Ippo Motomura, 27, who has a developmental disability, has also been active. He has attended Matsuzawa’s class since he was a third-grade elementary school student. At first, he could not sit still, but through repeatedly imitating pictures, he gradually started to choose subject matters and colors by himself. He also became able to concentrate longer.

His mother, Chizuru, 61, used to worry about her son and was distraught, feeling they were constantly making trouble for others.

After her son took lessons, she said: “Ms. Matsuzawa praised Ippo very happily as if he were her own son. When she recognized him that way, she really helped both of us.”