Bios

Soichi Watanabe was born in Ishinomaki City in northeastern Japan in 1949 and lives in Koshigaya City, Saitama. Watanabe graduated in 1982 from the Ochanomizu Art School in Tokyo after having earned, a decade earlier, an economics degree from Tohoku Gakuin University in Sendai. He teaches at a private art school that he started in 1982. Watanabe’s oil paintings have been displayed in numerous solo exhibitions including  Meeting Jesus in 1993 and The Revelation of John in 1999, both at Nisshin Gallery, Tokyo, The Encounter and the Hope at Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo in 2000, Prayer for Peace at Kwanseigakuin University, Nishinomiya and Kobe in 2007,  Make Straight the Way of Lord at Ginza Towa Gallery, Tokyo in 2008, and in collaboration with Christian Nor drama at Bossey Ecumenical Institute, Geneva and Evangelishe Akademie Loccum, Hannover in 2000. His books include Jesus Walking with Us (2004) and With Joy and Sorrow (2006). His paintings have been used for cover illustrations for the monthly Protestant magazine Gospel and World for twelve years. He is a member and former chairman of the Christian Art Association in Japan (JCA, the Asian Christian Art Association(ACAA) and the Japan Artists Association(JAA). He was the 2008–09 artist in residence at the Overseas Ministries Study Center (OMSC) in New Haven, Connecticut which is publishing a monograph of his work.
www.omsc.org/art
www.asianchristianart.org