Hiroko Kozuki makes Orthodox Christian icon for Raifa Monastery

Photo: screenshot from orenburg-gov.ru for realnoevremya.ru

Hiroko Kozuki created an Orthodox Christian icon for the Raifa Virgin Mary Male Monastery, head of Sakura Tatar-Japan Culture and Information Centre Asiya Sadykova told Reanoe Vremya.

It is specified that it is the Nicholas of Japan Icon.

As Asiya Sadykova explained, the icon was made on the Raifa Monastery’s request.

Hiroko Kozuki has been making icons for 20 years now, she is a member of an international icon painting school.

The Saviour, Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, Angel Guardian, Christmas, Annunciation, Resuscitation, The Blessed Trinity, Our Lady of Kazan, Mandylion, Archangel Michael, Saint George and the Dragon are among her works.

Besides this, Asiya Sadykova said that she planned to organise classes of the international icon painting school in the Tatarstan capital together with Hiroko Kozuki. According to the head of the centre, Hiroko Kozuko is one of the its initiators. The Tatarstan Metropolis is also interested in the idea.

“The case is that this area has its own icon painting schools. There is a Kazan icon painting school that has its own technique. But, unfortunately, we can say icon painters in Russia ‘stew’ in their own juice, they don’t go beyond their regional schools, which has a bad impact on the professional level. And understanding this we wanted our local icon painters to talk with people who travel around the world and can pass their knowledge. This is why it is important to implement this project. The Tatarstan Ministry of Culture supported this idea even before the pandemic,” said Sadykova.

Hiroko Kozuki already confirmed that she would be involved in the international icon painting school. However, accurate dates are yet unknown.

On 4 November, Patriarch of Moscow and Russia Kirill presented the original 16^th-century Virgin Mary Icon in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. It had been considered lost since the early last century. The divine image that was found will be transferred to the Kazan Cathedral at the Red Square.