Old-timers remember the late Masaru Ogawa, characterful senior editor of The Japan Times 40 years ago. Bilingual and bicultural from his birth and upbringing in the United States, he returned to Japan, married and brought up his family here.
Miho, one of his daughters, is on a visit to Japan from France, where she has lived for 12 years, and which she now calls home. She is here with her French husband, the artist Darius Hecq-Cauquil. "In France nobody knows his full name," Miho said. "He is simply Darius." He has been giving in Tokyo a solo exhibition, something he is doing here with increasing frequency. Gallery Nagai, where he shows, calls him "Darius of Corsica." He is in the tradition, they say, of Picasso of Antibe, Matisse of Nice, Chagall of Venice and Cocteau of Villefranche. His paintings, lit by the Mediterranean sun, reflect the nature and the mythology of the south of France.
Miho, who was born in Tokyo, grew up here. She attended Jiyugakuen, a school with a president who is also a former editor of The Japan Times. After graduation from Sophia University, Miho worked in the kindergarten of Jiyugakuen. "My sister was then in France, and my father let me go too, for six months," she said.