"Stop the plutonium shipment!" 1 Favorite 

While meditating in front of a Nepalese Sarasvati statue on New Year's Day in 1991 at her California home, Mayumi received a calling that brought a sudden halt to painting. Having witnessed the horrors of atomic bombings as a child and later, watching her beloved Japan become a leader in nuclear-energy, and seeing the effects of depleted uranium, Mayumi had to pursue a global cause greater than her art or feminism. For the next 10 years, Mayumi put her focus and energy toward stopping the unfolding of a plutonium world.

In 1992, Mayumi co-founded Inochi.us (Life Force) under which she established the Plutonium Free Future chartered to educate Japan's nuclear policy makers. Through the years that followed, she embarked on a mission that went as far as speaking to the United Nations World Court of Justice in the Hague. Mayumi received recognition for her commitment to a nuclear-free world over the past 25 years at the 2016 Bioneers Conference in Berkeley, CA.

By 2000, Mayumi's lifelong concern for the earth and her view of it as a source of healing and nourishment moved her to begin cultivating a five-acre parcel on the Big Island of Hawai'i. Since then, Ginger Hill Farm has served as her home, a retreat, a place for educating others about organic and sustainable farming, and where she shares that which makes Hawai'i a wonderful place to live.

She published her book called Sarasvati's Gift: The Autobiography of Mayumi Oda--Artist, Activist, and Modern Buddhist Revolutionary in 2020. This book is the culmination of a life devoted to responding to Sarasvati's call to cultivate a path of peace, justice, and compassion.Known as the "Matisse of Japan," 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 tumultuous marriage and the death of her son, her immigration to the country responsible for the destruction of her home, 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.

She made many paintings related to stoping using nuclear weapon, such as “Guadalupe,” a thangka painting. Oda says, "Our generation, having created nuclear weapons and nuclear power, has left such a sad legacy to this world. So I made this painting. Madonna as Guadalupe is very sad and tries to protect the children with her star cape. She intercedes for us in time of need.

I exhibited this Guadalupe at the International Court of Justice, or World Court of the United Nations, at the Hague, Netherlands, as our case on the legality of nuclear weapons was heard.

I exhibited her between the Red Fudo Myo-o and the Blue Fudo Myo-o in front of the gates of the court so that the judges could see her as they came and went. While we carried her, we chanted the Lotus Sutra to pray for a good judgement."