On October 14, 1983, one baby was born in Hiroshima. Without worth of infertility treatment, my parents did not have a child after marriage for six years. When my mother almost had given up on having a child, she became pregnant. My parents had immense gratitude to the doctor. The name of the doctor was Ippei. Therefore, I was named after him and bacame Ippei Katsumi.
At an early age, my family and I moved to Yokohama, and I grew up there. I graduated from Bunko Kindergarten, Nishishiba Elementary School, Yamate Gakuin Middle School, and Yamate Gakuin Hish School. I belonged to the karate team in the days of high school. For a player of a prestigious school, I was not good enough. However, the experience I earned, the time I spent there, and all the people I met are still my precious treasures. The “English language” and “the world” became two things of passion in my heart after going to Canada for a school trip. After my visit, I decided a course of studying in America after graduation from high school was necessary.
As I was spending days trying to persuade my father to agree with my direction after graduation, my mother suggested to go and see a fortune-teller suddenly. By the way, my mother is the kind of person who believes everything. Therefore, I was worried and decided to go with her, bringing a family photograph that was requested by the fortune teller.
As soon as we walked into the small room, he stared still at our faces and took a look at the photograph. Then, he asked my mother, "How many kids do you have?" She said, “Older one, Ippei, is here, and there is one younger brother.” He returned, “Don’t you have or ever had another?” What? Is there an illegitimate child? She followed,”In fact, before Ippei, I had one miscarrige." I was greatly surprised, as I didn’t know the fact for 18 years. He kept talking about each one of our family members, and everything he said was correct. I never believed in anything like fortune telllers, but I came to believe that “He was a real one.”
During the session, he started telling what was good or suitable for me, then the word of "photography" came out of his mouth. To be frank, at that time, I was interested in photography, but I never said it to anyone because I was horrible at art class in high school, and I didn’t want to bring up something new when I was trying to pursuade my father to let me go to America. As I left the fortune teller, I still wasn’t set on studying photography, despite he said.
After heavy pursuation, my father finally let me go. My family and friends saw me off at the airport, and after 14 hours of flight, I stepped on the American soil for the first time of my life. I enrolled at Harrisburg Area Community College in Lancaster campus. One day, my ESL professor asked me a question about my major. I told her, “Maybe sociology or journalism.” Then she said "How about photography? There is a great program at main campus. The word of "photography" came out again here. Just to try it out, I took Black and White photography class, and I just fell in love with it. I really felt something led and guided me.
I spent 3 and half years there and graduated. During attendance at school, I was awarded prizes for school contests and national contests. I worked, and am working in the photographic lab assisting classes and professors. I traveled to South America. After graduation, I took a cross country road trip. Now, I am taking extra courses to transfer to School of Visual Arts.
