My Zine-making Journey – a guest blog by Kanade Kurozumi
Kanade Kurozumi reflects on her first experience of zine making following the zine workshop we facilitated with as part of a ‘complexities of peace’ programme in Hiroshima, organised by the Oleander initiative.
On the day, still feeling the dense fog of a heavy rainy night, I joined a zine-making workshop held by Hel and Jill from the Madzines project in the UK.
It was my first time making a zine, so I didn’t know how it would feel to create it.
Looking around the materials on the table, choosing one, making a shape by tearing it with my hands, and putting it on the page by feeling its texture was an act of finding my own genuine story hidden beneath words.
On my zine, I first expressed ‘rain’ using light-blue paper because I always feel inner peace when I listen to rain.
Then, I put red, yellow, green, light blue, and brown paper and stamps for sun, light, sky, wind, mountain, river, and flowers.
They are the ones I appreciate in everyday life, inspiring me and giving me a sense of peace.
Lastly, I stamped some letters that represent my name. The name is my Japanese name in the Keres language, a Native American language. I feel like I was given this name by my dear friend, Mr. Petuuche, an elder from the Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico. I asked him what my name KANADE, meaning “playing music,” would be in Keres. Then he told me a Keres word that really means “someone or something singing a song.” Since then, the word has become my sacred name, kept in my heart. I once thought of using this word as my artist name, but I have been feeling like, “No, don’t treat this word like that.” So, this word has been very sacred to me as my secret name.
I have been waiting for the moment when this word will be called to appear. Then, it happened when I was creating my zine.
It was the right moment.
Zine-making was a journey to my true self.
These small pages tell my genuine story.
Kanade Kurozumi was born in Hiroshima, Japan and is a photographer, researcher of native American literature and peace educator. She works as a coordinator with the Oleander Initiative. In advance of our trip, Kanade translated our zine, a Madzine is a crafting tool.
For another take on our Hiroshima zine workshop, read Danny Taggart’s blog post – Erasing the face of God.