Official site of artist Mayumi Oda
Books - Available for Purchase
Sarasvati's Gift
Mayumi Oda
The inspiring life story of pioneering feminist artist, activist, and Buddhist teacher Mayumi Oda, told through her own words and original thangka paintings.
Sitting in meditation in front of a statue of Goddess Sarasvati, Mayumi Oda heard her say in a loud voice, "Stop the plutonium shipment!" After taking a stunned breath, Mayumi replied, "I can't do that. I'm only an artist," and Sarasvati answered, "Help will be provided." This book is the culmination of a life devoted to responding to Sarasvati's call to cultivate a path of peace, justice, and compassion.
Mayumi Oda is a painter, environmental activist, and Buddhist practitioner whose life reflects both the brilliance and shadows of modernity. Sarasvati's Gift explores her upbringing in Japan, her immigration to the country responsible for the destruction of her home, her tumultuous marriage and the death of her son, her inspiration for both her Buddhist practice and her art, and ultimately her commitment to the planet that gives her life both hope and meaning. This raw, heartfelt, and powerful memoir shares Mayumi's story of finding her place and her mission to transform the world.
Publisher: Shambala
Dimension: 9 1/2”x 6”, 136 pages, full color throughout
Signed Softcover Price: $25.00
Merciful Sea
Merciful Sea55 Years of Serigraphs
Mayumi Oda
*** New Edition, Released April 2024 ***
This book is a must-have resource for Mayumi Oda collectors. Beautiful, re-designed catalogue raisonné of Mayumi Oda's serigraphs and woodblocks created from 1968 to 2023. Originally published in conjunction with the exhibition at the Robyn Buntin of Honolulu Gallery of Fine Art, now updated with more art and more stories. Includes a personal retrospective commentary from Mayumi written in 1985 and updated in 2023 with forwards by Robyn Buntin, Mary-Ann Milford-Lutzer & Roshi John Tarrant. Mayumi shares her delightful stories behind works of individual series including the Ocean, Goddess, Garden, Diptych series, and many more.
Publisher: Mayumi Oda Art Editions
Dimensions: 11" x 8.5", 180 pages, full color throughout
Signed softcover price $75.00
I Opened the Gate, Laughing
Mayumi Oda
A Tribute to the Power of Spiritual Practice, Creative Expression, and True Self-Acceptance
I Opened the Gate, Laughing is the story of one woman’s journey to creative freedom through gardening and the teachings of Zen. Born in Japan, Mayumi Oda comes back to the practice of Buddhism at beautiful Green Gulch Farm retreat center in Northern California, where she finds a new tranquility and creative spirit through her pen, her brush, and her trowel to overcome the constraints of a traditional upbringing and the sadness of the end of a marriage. This enchanting book is a meditation on the search for inner peace and reawakening, awash with luscious prints and watercolors, beautifully designed, and filled with vivid stories and verse. I Opened the Gate, Laughing is a resource for anyone seeking a slower pace, a sacred space, and a garden.
Publisher: New Village Press Distributor: NYU Press
96 Pages, Color illustrated throughout
Signed Hardcover price: $40.00
Divine Gardens
Mayumi Oda & The San Francisco Zen Center
Mayumi Oda’s internationally recognized artwork plays with traditional Japanese and Buddhist images, refiguring them as celebrations of the feminine and the natural world. Where most traditional Buddhist iconography features male figures, Oda introduces female “Goddesses” that seem to jump off the page, imbued with vibrant color and line.
Originally from Japan, Mayumi Oda settled in Muir Beach, California in the 1970s and began practicing and painting at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, which Oda calls her “California Buddha Field.” Divine Gardens pairs Oda’s artwork with essays by fellow practitioners, for whom Oda’s artwork has been a constant companion.
Divine Gardens captures the essence of Mayumi Oda’s art and life as a Zen practitioner. The 45 full-color works of art and 24 essays are a joyful celebration of her work and the community forged by her years at the San Francisco Zen Center.
Publisher: Parallax Press, 2017
Dimensions: 9" x 12", 112 pages, full color throughout
Signed Hardcover Price: $50.00
Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty
Anne Herbert, Margaret Paloma Pavel & Mayumi Oda
In 1982 Anne Herbert wrote "Practice Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty." This beautiful precept began to appear everywhere–on garden gates, on bumper stickers and posters and in books.
Mayumi Oda's art merges with the text as if they were created together. For Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty, she derives her style from picture scrolls entitled Chojugiga: Frolicking Animals, said to have been drawn during the 12th century Heian Period in Japan.
Publisher: Volcano Press, 1993
Re-released by New Village Press, 2024 for 30th Anniversary Edition
Dimensions: 8" x 7", 22 pages, full color throughout
Signed Hardcover price: $25.00
Happy Veggies
Mayumi Oda
This book is for anyone who loves to garden and wants to invite a child to join in a delicious celebration of the fullness of life.
Lively illustrations of vegetables in the garden by legendary Japanese artist Mayumi Oda will inspire children to see the garden as a life-giving place where they can touch the Earth and see how Nature loves and feeds them. Starting with green and purple asparagus in the Spring, the book moves joyfully through the seasons, showing how hot and cold weather, sunshine and rain all combine to bring about a happy harvest.
Publisher: Plum Blossom, November 2018
Dimensions: 6" x 8-1/2", 40 pages, full color throughout
Signed Hardcover Price: $25.00