Saying goodbye to year 2009 and welcoming 2010 and a new decade「２００９年に にさよなら－よろしく２０１０年」

"Year of Tiger' watercolor print by H. Okajima　
岡島秀夫先生のトラの年賀の水彩プリント、習字はたぶん奥さんの静子さんが書いたものだろう

I've received a photo and card from two people from Japan that deals with New year. One a photo of one of my former students from Dohto University, Nozomi Sakae(class of 2009) saying goodbye to year 2009 by bowing while wearing a cow outfit as year 2009 was the year of cow. She still keeps very close in touch with me. The other a card made of water color paint that depicts tiger as this year is the year of tiger. It was painted by Dr. Hideo Okajima who was a former president of Dohto Jr. College and a dean of agriculture department of Hokkaido University. He is a very close friend of mine as we used to go sketching and visit museums and galleries in Hokkaido together. Although Dr. Okajima is in mid 80's, as can be seen in this painting, he still paints superbly. Calligraphy on the right although unmentioned is probably is done by his wife, Shizuko who is a very accomplished calligrapher in her own right.

Hopefully, this year and this coming decade will be a very good one for all of us.

Nozomi in cow outfit bowing good bye to year 2009
栄さん、２００９年ごくろうさまと。。。

二人の親友から年末挨拶の写真とカードが届いた。一つは道都大学卒業生（安田ゼミ２００９）の栄希さんからで彼女は牛の服装でご苦労さんの挨拶して２００９年にお別れを伝えた写真を送ってくれた。もう一つは、水彩でトラの絵を描いて２０１０年を迎えた岡島秀夫先生からのカードだ。岡島先生は今は退職していられるが、長い間道都大学の短大の学長を勤め、それ以前は北大の農業学部長を勤めた科学者だ。水彩とスケッチが大変上手な方だ。昔、私はよく岡島先生と一緒にスケッチにいったり、ギャラリーや美術館を見学したりしていた大変親しい仲間でありながら、恩を受けた方だ。このトラの絵でわかると思うが８０代に入っても大変素晴らしい絵を描いている。書いてはいないが、おそらく右の習字は奥さんの静子さんのものだろう。

どうか新年とこれからの１０年、素晴らしい時代を迎えることを願いたい。