Makoto Fujimura: An Artist of the Kingdom

MAKOTO FUJIMURA is an artist and writer whose artwork, which combines modern abstract styles with ancient Japanese art, has earned him success in the United States and Japan. In 1990, he founded the International Arts Movement. His newest book, Refractions, releases February 1.

This interview appeared in the September/October 2007 issue of Discipleship Journal.

DJ: When did you first know that you wanted to be an artist?

Makoto: My father is a scientist—he’s very creative—and my mother is an educator. Creativity was central in our home. I don’t know if I ever “wanted” to be an artist, but I recognized that I was one already. My goal is not to be categorized as an artist, but to grow into the person God created me to be.

DJ: Who has been influential in your spiritual life?

Makoto: My wife has had the most influence in my life spiritually. Soon after we wed she experienced a renewal of faith that shaped our marriage and eventually led me to God. Also, reading creative writers who had faith, such as William Blake, Dante, and T. S. Eliot, helped me understand that we serve a creative God.

DJ: What role does relationship with God play in your art?

Makoto: When I am alone in my studio, I feel God’s presence the most. I am privileged to spend time creating and communing with our Savior, the only pure artist who ever lived. I do not go into the art world as a “Christian” artist, however. I am a Christian first and artist second. What I do and how I live is God’s artwork created through my brokenness and limitations.

DJ: How do you see God at work in the art world in New York?

Makoto: When I arrived in New York City in 1992, it was considered ludicrous to integrate one’s faith in Christ into one’s art. God has so transformed the climate of the city that the integration of faith and art is possible today in a very public way. In our annual International Arts Movement conferences, held two blocks from Ground Zero, we feature artists, performers, and speakers who try to exemplify what it means to celebrate and showcase our identity as the bride of Christ, creative and beautiful for the world to behold. Artists who can operate as followers of Christ in the avant-garde culture of New York contribute to significant cultural renewal.

DJ: Many Christians aren’t directly involved in the arts. What role does creativity play in their walks with God?

Makoto: If we serve a creative God, then our relationships with God should have creativity at the center. Discipleship is a creative journey. A disciple is God’s masterpiece—His workmanship or poiema (Eph. 2:10)—created in Christ Jesus to create masterpieces. In the Great Commission, Jesus tells us that all authority is given to Him. Authority is “author-ity,” which means that Jesus is the author of our lives. We, then, are little authors, and when we make a disciple we coauthor with God the future of that person’s destiny as part of the bride of Christ. In this sense, Christians are wedding planners, and discipleship involves focusing on the Bridegroom and preparing for the wedding to come.

DJ: What people or passages in Scripture inspire you as an artist?

Makoto: Too many to narrow down! The Bible is a creative book by a creator God for creative children of God. The Bible begins with creation and ends with new creation, and everywhere in between it is filled with creative language of hope. I am profoundly affected by Genesis 2, which describes the pre-fall state of the poet named Adam. I call him a poet because his first commission was to name the animals. The act of naming—giving words to indescribable experience—is the essence of poetry. I’m also drawn to the extravagant adoration of the woman who anointed Jesus (Mark 14). I see in her unconventional act an artist of the kingdom. Although the disciples could not understand what she did, Jesus did because He was the great artist. He commended her by linking her act with the gospel spreading to the world. That aroma of Christ spreads into my life and art today.

Click here to download a free sample chapter from Refractions.