Tom Tsuchiya also known as Norikazu (born August 3, 1972) is an American artist who creates public

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

. He is best known for

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

sculptures for

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

and the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

. Pahigian, Josh, & O’Connell, Kevin. “The Ultimate Baseball Road Trip, 2nd: A Fan's Guide to Major League Stadiums”. P. 201. Lyons Press, 2012. > In 2016, Tom was commissioned by Josh Rooney, the Director of Sports & Entertainment at Matthews International to produce the

National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-re ...

plaque bas-reliefs for

Ken Griffey Jr. George Kenneth Griffey Jr. (born November 21, 1969), nicknamed "Junior" and "the Kid", is an American former professional baseball outfielder who played 22 years in Major League Baseball (MLB). He spent most of his career with the Seattle Marin ...

and

Mike Piazza Michael Joseph Piazza ( ; born September 4, 1968) is an American former professional baseball catcher who played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), from 1992 to 2007. He currently serves as the manager of the Italian national baseball te ...

Works

Reds Legends of Crosley Field

Tsuchiya created four life-size bronze sculptures of

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

players at

Great American Ball Park Great American Ball Park is a baseball stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio. It served as the home stadium of the Cincinnati Reds of Major League Baseball (MLB), and opened on March 31, 2003, replacing Cinergy Field (formerly Riverfront Stadium), the Reds ...

in Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.. These sculptures, depicting

Crosley Field Crosley Field was a Major League Baseball park in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was the home field of the National League's Cincinnati Reds from 1912 through June 24, 1970, and the original Cincinnati Bengals football team, members of the second (1937) ...

era players involved in an imaginary ballgame, represent

Joe Nuxhall Joseph Henry Nuxhall (; July 30, 1928 – November 15, 2007) was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball, primarily for the Cincinnati Reds. Immediately after retiring as a player, he became a radio broadcaster for the Reds f ...

pitching to

Frank Robinson Frank Robinson (August 31, 1935 – February 7, 2019) was an American professional baseball outfielder and Manager (baseball), manager in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played for five teams, from to . The only player to be named MLB Most Valua ...

Ernie Lombardi Ernesto Natali Lombardi (April 6, 1908 – September 26, 1977), was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a catcher for the Brooklyn Robins, Cincinnati Reds, Boston Braves, and New York Giants durin ...

catching and

Ted Kluszewski Theodore Bernard Kluszewski (September 10, 1924 – March 29, 1988), also known as "Big Klu", was an American professional baseball player known for his bulging biceps and mammoth home runs in the 1950s decade. He played from 1947 through 1961 wit ...

on deck.Stupp, Dan. ''Opening Day at Great American Ball Park'', p. 58. Sports Publishing L.L.C., 2003. > All four sculptures were completed by 2004.

Madden Most Valuable Protectors Award

In 2009, Tsuchiya was commissioned to design and sculpt the

Madden Most Valuable Protectors Award The Madden Most Valuable Protectors Award was a trophy awarded annually to the best offensive line of the National Football League. The trophy, sponsored by Prilosec OTC, is named in honor of former NFL coach and commentator, John Madden. Desig ...

to honor the NFL's best

offensive line In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numbe ...

. He created this bronze

trophy A trophy is a tangible, durable reminder of a specific achievement, and serves as a recognition or evidence of merit. Trophies are often awarded for sporting events, from youth sports to professional level athletics. In many sports medals (or, in ...

as a departure from the traditional award design, integrating figures of the players into the trophy's base. On February 3, 2010, the offensive line of

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

became the inaugural winner of the trophy.

Lux Mundi

In September 2012, Tsuchiya completed '' Lux Mundi'', a 15.8 meter (52 feet) tall statue of

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

for Solid Rock Church in Monroe, Ohio. This work replaces the statue of Jesus that was destroyed by a lightning strike in June, 2010.

Atlas Recycled

In March 2010, Tsuchiya created ''Atlas Recycled'', a

sustainable art Sustainable art is art in harmony with the key principles of sustainability, which include ecology, social justice, non-violence and grassroots democracy. Sustainable art may also be understood as art that is produced with consideration for the wide ...

sculpture that doubles as a recycling container for

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It h ...

cans and

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptabi ...

bottles. The 2.1 meter (7 feet) tall sculpture depicts the mythical

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Titan

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographi ...

bearing the earth on his shoulders. In addition to being a recycling aid, ''Atlas'' itself is made mainly from reused materials. Pieces of 14 used atlases and road maps cover the entire surface of the sculpture. Most of the

polymer A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + ''-mer'', "part") is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic and ...

and

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant t ...

that form the structure were reused from the creation of some of the artist's previous sculptures. To celebrate

Earth Day Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EarthDay.org (formerly Earth Day Network) including 1 b ...

, ''Atlas'' has been exhibited in Cincinnati's

Fountain Square A fountain square is a park or plaza in a city that features a fountain. It may stand alone or as part of a larger public park. In the United States, there are numerous fountain squares, many of which are actually called "fountain square." The ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminu ...

and

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, N ...

National Mall The National Mall is a landscaped park near the downtown area of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States. It contains and borders a number of museums of the Smithsonian Institution, art galleries, cultural institutions, and var ...

National Baseball Hall of Fame

In December 2015 artist Mindy Ellis who produced a total of 76 bas-relief likeness for the

National Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-re ...

induction plaques retired her commission after 20 years of service. In February 2016 Tom Tsuchiya was commissioned by Josh Rooney, the Director of Sports and Entertainment at Matthews International to produce the bas-relief likeness for

and

Other works

Other notable works by Tsuchiya include the sculpture to honor slain baseball coach Cleveland Parker III. This sculpture features a relief portrait of Parker, a poem and a spiraling arrangement of representations of home plate, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd bases. At night, this sculpture announces its presence by emitting pulsating light created by digitally controlled

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (cor ...

s located inside the sculpture's body. Tsuchiya collaborated with American

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

Nikki Giovanni Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni Jr. (born June 7, 1943) is an American poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. One of the world's most well-known African-American poets,Jane M. Barstow, Yolanda Williams Page (eds)"Nikki Giovanni" ''E ...

on this memorial who wrote a poem celebrating Cleveland Parker's life that is inscribed on the north side of the sculpture. Cleveland Parker was a Cincinnati youth baseball coach who was fatally struck by a stray bullet on July 12, 2005.Mauch, Lisa. "Eastern Hills Journal." July 12, 2006. In September 17, 2011, the Cincinnati Reds unveiled Tsuchiya's statue of the great Reds

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the catcher ...

Johnny Bench John Lee Bench (born December 7, 1947) is an American former professional baseball player. He played his entire Major League Baseball career, which lasted from through , with the Cincinnati Reds, primarily as a catcher. Bench was the leader of t ...

. Tsuchiya's fifth statue for Great American Ball Park is located near the entrance of the

Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum The Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum is an entity established by Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds franchise that pays homage to the team's past through displays, photographs and multimedia. It was instituted in 1958 to recognize the ...

. The statue represents Bench in the act of throwing out a base runner. Johnny Bench stated that the unveiling of his statue was "his greatest moment." Tsuchiya also made a statue of

Joe Morgan Joe Leonard Morgan (September 19, 1943 – October 11, 2020) was an American professional baseball second baseman who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Houston Colt .45s / Astros, Cincinnati Reds, San Francisco Giants, ...

that was dedicated in summer 2013.

Gallery

Image: Reds Legends of Crosley Field rev.jpg , ''Reds Legends of Crosley Field'' Image: RSTProtectorsAward 1.jpg , ''Madden Most Valuable Protectors Award'' Image: Atlas Recycled at the National Mall.jpg, ''Atlas Recycled'' Image: Johnny Bench Statue at Great American Ball Park.jpg , ''Johnny Bench: Baseball's Greatest Catcher''

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tsuchiya, Tom 20th-century American sculptors 1972 births Living people 21st-century American sculptors