“The Taste of Hong Kong Through My Eyes” will feature a selection of her watercolour paintings depicting Hong Kong foods, many of which were exhibited in Tokyo in 2023 under the title “Have You Eaten Yet?”.
The exhibition is curated by Kennis Chan, who connected with Onodera over food more than five years ago and discovered a kindred spirit in her.
She uses the image of the pineapple-bun-wielding waiter as an example of how Onodera is able to crystallise the small details of daily life in her work. “There’s a stillness to it. She’s able to capture a beautiful moment that many of us wouldn’t have even noticed.
“This is why I wanted to showcase Onodera’s work in Hong Kong.”
Often, her sketches will feature everyday people she comes across – cooks, waiters, diners – as well as the adorable cats she encounters on her walks through the streets.
When Lin Heung Tea House closed down in August 2022, she posted a sketch of the restaurant with the caption, “I cried thinking of everyone’s faces and food I ate so many times”.
Other than during the Covid-19 era, Onodera would visit several times a year, each time finding new inspiration through food and nature.
“It is also to learn about the unpretentious lifestyle of the people of Hong Kong,” she explains. “I would like to know more about home cooking. I want to know why I am so attracted to Hong Kong, especially through food.”
Onodera last visited Hong Kong just a few months ago, in January, where she met Word by Word’s founder Michael Lui Ka-chun; the two met more than a decade ago at a gallery in Tokyo, bonded over their love of food (back then, Lui was still the editor of Eat and Travel Weekly magazine) and have kept in touch ever since.
“I stayed at a friend’s house, joined her family for dinner, went for a walk in Ap Lei Chau and bought some dry ingredients for the soups I will make in Japan,” the artist says.
She also shows off a haul of dried conch and morel mushrooms and shares that she also stocks up on Chinese medicinal herbs and Black and White evaporated milk whenever she comes over, despite the considerable weight it adds to her suitcase.
Onodera has become something of an ambassador for Hong Kong in Japan, her exhibitions in Tokyo flying the flag for the city’s food culture.
The illustrator says that there tends to be three types of people who come to her exhibitions in Japan. The first would be local fans of Hong Kong culture – “These are people who want to experience a bit of Hong Kong’s atmosphere even if they are in Japan,” she says.
Another would be Hongkongers living in Japan. “They want to see how Japanese people express Hong Kong. I hope these people will not be disappointed. I hope to express the atmosphere and colours that are unique to Hong Kong, not the stereotypical image of Hong Kong,” she says.
The third and final category are simply passers-by – people who happen to stop by the gallery and know nothing about Hong Kong. “I want to convey to these people the charms of Hong Kong that cannot be expressed in travel guidebooks and get them interested in the city,” says Onodera.
“In particular, many Japanese people are completely unaware of the differences between Taiwan and Hong Kong, so I would be happy if I could give them a taste of what kind of city it is through my paintings. Some of them said, ‘I didn’t know Hong Kong was such a city. I want to visit there.’”
“The Taste of Hong Kong Through My Eyes” by Mitsuko Onodera will be exhibited at Word by Word Book Store (1/F, Foo Tak Building, 365-367 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai) from April 13 to May 12, 2024
