Hello.
My name is Mimi Takamizawa, and I am a painter.
To you, who always works so hard.
You have truly lived your life with all your might up until this very day.
First, let me express my deepest gratitude to you for that.
Are you aware that you carry a tinge of loneliness within you as you live your life?
It is to comfort that heart of yours that Mimi Takamizawa’s artwork was created.
This is art meant to heal your heart.
This is an important conversation about life, shared between you and me.
I am writing these words specifically for you—a truly special existence.
Please relax, perhaps with a cup of tea in a quiet room, and listen closely.
Because every story found here is a powerful secret designed to dramatically transform your daily life.
Are you familiar with Maruyama Okyo, the genius painter of the Edo period?
“What does a painter from so long ago have to do with my life today?”
You might wonder.
However, it has everything to do with you.
The man named Maruyama Okyo was a top-tier revolutionary who shattered all the old conventions of his time.
He did not just sit at a desk and paint from imagination.
He thoroughly observed the reality right in front of him and drew what he saw.
That was the beginning of shasei (sketching from nature) in Japanese art.
Just like you, Okyo was a man who climbed up from nothing, starting from absolute zero.
That is precisely why his paintings possess a striking, eye-opening power that instantly captivates the hearts of those who look at them.
When you feel lonely day by day, or when you feel anxious about the future, it is by no means because you are weak. Could it be because you are surrounded by unauthentic, imitation information?
Welcoming Maruyama Okyo’s art into your life—that is the guaranteed shortcut to enriching your existence.
Life does not reside within life; life exists within death.
— Ancient Japanese Proverb
Why Is Looking Straight at the Reality Before You the Most Powerful Weapon to Erase Your Anxiety?
Do you ever feel anxious when your life doesn’t go exactly as planned?
Why did Okyo continue to sketch dogs and peonies day after day, without fail?
It was because he believed only in the “truth” that stood right before his eyes.
In Okyo’s era, the world of painting valued nothing but copying old model books from China.
However, Okyo questioned this convention.
“I will believe only what I have seen with my own eyes.”
Don’t you think this thorough, hands-on realism was his sole weapon, and an astonishing lesson that you can apply directly to your own work and daily life?
We become anxious because we fear an unseen future entirely on our own.
Or perhaps because we are trapped by past failures.
Maruyama Okyo obsessively kept his eyes fixed solely on what was right in front of him in the present moment.
To him, sketching from nature was a desperate service to save lives.
The stress you feel today from human relations at your workplace can turn into a mere “subject of observation” if you adopt Okyo’s perspective.
“Why is this person so angry?”
Try stepping back like that and observing the other person’s “eyes.”
Just by doing so, your heart will instantly become lighter.
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
— The Bible (New Testament, Matthew 7:7)
Tidings of happiness never arrive when one is actively waiting for them.
— Osamu Dazai
Why Do You Look for “Reasons Why You Can’t,” and Have You Forgotten the “Fool’s Spirit” of Kiichiro Toyoda?
Do you find yourself worrying about the gaze of those around you when you try something new?
Have you ever given up because someone told you, “There’s no way you can do that”?
Here, I would like to gift you the words of Kiichiro Toyoda, the man who supported the foundation of Japanese manufacturing:
“We do it precisely because it is difficult. I do it because no one else will, and no one else can. I might be a fool for doing so, but without such fools, nothing new would ever be born into this world.”
Don’t you find these words magnificent?
Just like Maruyama Okyo, Kiichiro Toyoda was a man treated as an “oddball” by those around him.
Building a domestic automobile was something everyone at the time said was impossible.
Yet, he never gave up.
Why? Because he possessed a special passion: the desire to make life easier for everyone.
If you are facing some kind of hardship right now, it is proof that you are trying to give birth to “something new.”
Even if the people around you laugh at you, what does it matter?
As a painter, I too hold the readiness to be laughed at in order to deliver this desperate service to you every single day.
It is perfectly fine to grow stronger by being laughed at.
Allow me to speak now about the three great questions and worries you hold in your life.
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
— Thomas Edison
Why Can Your Three Great Questions in Life Be Completely Solved by the Special Prescription of Art?
What are the three worries that cross your mind when you cannot sleep at night?
Let me guess them by aligning my heart with yours.
First is the loneliness of existence—the feeling that “perhaps I am not needed by anyone.”
Second is the vanity of time—the fear that “life might just end like this, repeating the exact same things every day.”
Third is the dread of isolation—the worry that “human relationships aren’t going well, and no one truly understands the real me.”
These are incredibly urgent and serious problems for you, living in the modern world, aren’t they?
But please, rest assured.
These problem points can actually be completely solved through art.
Why? Because art is a miraculous tool that connects you directly with the geniuses of hundreds of years ago.
When you look at Maruyama Okyo’s paintings, you are not alone.
The “gaze” that Okyo poured his very life into painting transcends time and space to look right back at you today.
The works of Mimi Takamizawa are exactly the same.
The theme of my creations is “your eyes, my eyes.”
When you look at a piece, the “eyes” within the artwork are also looking deeply at you, seeking to understand you.
With this, your first loneliness completely vanishes.
Through art, you are always connected to the world.
Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
— Thomas Edison
Why Are the Vanity of Time and the Sufferings of Human Relationships Instantly Healed by the Hobby of Collecting Art?
Let us think about your second worry, the vanity of time.
The daily grind of work, chores, and routines.
Is it a sad thing that life slips away just with these?
However, try placing a single piece of Maruyama Okyo’s artwork in your room.
An “eternal” time that has remained unchanged since the Edo period flows right there.
The moment you touch art, the clock of your daily routine stops, and you become a part of the grand flow of history.
Not a single moment of the time you live is wasted.
And regarding the third worry, the suffering of human relationships.
Other people rarely understand you, do they?
Yet, in the world of art, even the muddy, complicated emotions inside you are completely affirmed as something beautiful.
Why? Because an artist is a clown who gets hurt in your stead, pays his own way, and expresses that very hardship.
To have a hobby of collecting art means keeping a doctor who saves your soul by your side at all times.
You no longer need to worry.
I will take upon myself all of your loneliness.
My secret of success is to keep going after others have given up.
— Thomas Edison
Why Does the Obsession of Sakichi Toyoda, Who Was Called an Oddball, Give Courage to Your Current Daily Life?
Do you ever feel like throwing in the towel right away when your efforts go unrewarded?
Here, let us talk about Sakichi Toyoda, the founding father of Toyota, who was deemed an oddball.
Sakichi was a truly taciturn man and was treated as a complete eccentric by his peers.
“An invention maniac.”
That is what they called him as he spent from morning until night, day after day, building something only to break it down, creating it and then recreating it all over again.
Why was he able to go that far?
It was because he possessed a single-minded spirit of devotion: “I want to invent a loom to make life easier for my mother and for all the working people in the world.”
What kind of benefits does his obsession and patience bring to your life today?
Even if the work you are tackling right now is not recognized by anyone, there is absolutely no need to care.
In any case, you must be the one who works the longest and the hardest.
Immediate decision, immediate conclusion, immediate execution.
If you just try doing anything, a result will always follow.
First, it is about doing.
In return, you must give it your all.
Like Sakichi Toyoda, let us build your life day by day, focusing intensely, as if stacking bricks one by one.
In the end, being without talent or art, I am bound single-mindedly to this one path.
— Matsuo Basho
Why Do Choya Umeshu’s Resolve and Akio Morita’s Marketing Theory Prove the Value of Your Very Existence?
Do you ever feel frustrated, thinking that your charm is not being communicated to those around you?
It is vital to communicate good things.
If it is not communicated, it is the same as not existing in this world.
Are you familiar with the history of Choya Umeshu?
They cut off all lines of retreat with a tremendous resolve: “If we do not succeed with plum liqueur, give up on life.”
That is exactly why that special, delicious taste is able to reach you today.
Here, I introduce the wonderful words of Akio Morita, the co-founder of Sony:
“A product that has never been produced before, which no one has ever seen, but which has been painstakingly researched in some corner and manufactured after immense hardship. When trying to turn such a product into a commodity, if you do not arouse the desire among people to possess it, no matter how excellent the ‘product’ may be, it can never become a ‘commodity.'”
This applies directly to your own life as well.
The kindness and the wonderful talents that reside inside your heart.
If you simply keep them to yourself in silence, they will never be communicated to anyone.
Let us begin the effort to correctly communicate the value of your existence to the people around you as soon as possible.
Greet people with a smile; express words of gratitude.
Just by doing that, your value will begin to be correctly transmitted to those around you.
Opportunity usually presents itself disguised as a crisis or as a burden at first.
— Aizo Soma
Why Does the Miraculous Partnership of Soichiro Honda and Takeo Fujisawa Fundamentally Change Your Worries about Human Relationships?
Do you find yourself holding onto everything alone, making things difficult for yourself?
Let me share with you an episode about the founder of Honda, Soichiro Honda, and his partner, Takeo Fujisawa.
Soichiro Honda was a genius of technology, but he understood absolutely nothing about business management.
On the other hand, Takeo Fujisawa was a genius of business management, but he understood nothing of technology.
When these two men met, an unbelievable, powerful energy was born.
Honda said:
“I will do only the research I love. I leave all the talk of money to Fujisawa.”
Fujisawa, too, dedicated his life to marketing Honda’s technology to the world.
Furthermore, Shotaro Kamiya and Taizo Ishida, the founding fathers of Toyota’s resurgence, were also people of intense obsession and patience.
They, too, perfectly understood each other’s roles, never looked sideways, and exerted all their efforts solely for the customers.
The same can be said for your daily life.
There is absolutely no need for you to do everything perfectly.
You can leave the things you are not good at to the people who excel at them.
There is a special role that belongs uniquely to you.
Just as Maruyama Okyo’s beautiful paintings were completed as magnificent sliding door panels through the cooperation of many craftsmen, you too simply need to take someone’s hand.
Most people think of success as something to get. But in reality, success is about giving.
— Henry Ford
Why Does the Philosophy of Quality Left by Steve Jobs Elevate the Quality of Your Daily Work?
Are you chasing only after efficiency in your work, forgetting something precious?
Here, I would like to introduce a deeply piercing quote by Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple:
“Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten.”
This is a story that relates to every single task you perform today.
No amount of marketing can make a bad product a hit.
The documents you create, the coffee you brew, the polite phone calls you handle.
The quality of each and every one of those actions builds your trust.
Why is it that the paintings drawn by Maruyama Okyo are still loved today, holding values of hundreds of millions of yen even after centuries have passed?
It is because Okyo pursued flawless quality without cutting a single corner.
He never allowed himself the compromise of thinking, “This much is good enough,” throughout his entire life.
In your daily life, try to care just a little bit more about quality.
Polish your shoes beautifully; arrange your desk neatly.
That tiny bit of care brings a first-class dignity to your life that no one can imitate.
A man is what he thinks about all day long.
— Laozi
Why Can You Awaken to True Kindness by Learning about the Loneliness of Tokuji Munetsugu, the Founder of CoCo Ichibanya?
Have you ever felt like you are the loneliest person in the entire world?
Here, allow me to speak about Mr. Tokuji Munetsugu, the founder of CoCo Ichibanya, whom I respect from the bottom of my heart.
Mr. Munetsugu does not know the faces of his real parents.
He entered an orphanage in a completely isolated state, and even after being taken in by foster parents, he spent a destitute childhood due to his foster father’s gambling addiction.
During his boyhood, because there was nothing to eat, he would eat wild grass in the summer to stave off starvation.
Why was Mr. Munetsugu, who walked such a turbulent life, able to achieve such grand success?
He dedicated his entire life to his work.
“During my time in active management, I had no hobbies and made no friends. I have never even gone to a bar. I did not do a single thing that would get in the way of my work. There were years where I worked 5,640 hours. I believed that if I did not lead by example, my subordinates would not work for me.”
Why was he able to drive himself that far?
Mr. Munetsugu speaks of it like this:
“It was an incredibly lonely life. That is why I wanted others to show even just a little interest in me. I wanted them to be interested. That became my starting point. Therefore, when I started the business, rather than making money, I wanted to make people happy. I wanted people to say that they were glad I was around, even if just a little bit.”
Hearing these words, what do you feel?
The loneliness you carry can also be transformed into a powerful energy to make someone else happy.
Take up your cross and follow me.
— The Bible (New Testament, Matthew 16:24)
I simply want to make people happy. That is my only, fragile prayer.
— Osamu Dazai
How Is Tokuji Munetsugu’s Indomitable Spirit of Casting Away Even His Hobbies Applied to Your Daily Routine?
Mr. Tokuji Munetsugu’s episode continues further.
During his unfortunate childhood, his soul was deeply saved by classical music.
Therefore, he truly loves music.
However, during the era when he was the active manager of CoCo Ichibanya, he did not listen to his beloved classical music at all.
Why?
“It was no longer the time to be listening to music. It was no’t the time to be indulging in hobbies. It was to dedicate all of my time to the customers.”
Never looking sideways, dedicating his entire being to management—this was his thorough resolve.
In the early days of running the coffee shop that was the predecessor to CoCo Ichibanya, customers hardly came at all.
At that time, for lunch, Mr. and Mrs. Munetsugu survived each day by eating the “crusts of white bread” that were left over from making sandwiches.
“Since we started from zero, such things were only natural. Rather, they are fond memories.”
What do you learn from the figure of Mr. Munetsugu, looking back and laughing like that?
What kind of life you will have is decided by a person’s diligence, patience, and continuity.
Rather than thinking, it is about trying first.
Please do not give up easily.
Whenever you are right before me, in my heart, I am always welcoming you with a standing ovation.
The very fact that you look at my artwork is the greatest joy of my life.
Make your calling and election sure.
— John Calvin
Why Is the Story of Vincent van Gogh’s Tragedy and Salvation Also Your Very Own Story?
Do you ever fall into despair when your efforts are recognized by no one?
Here lies the story of another indomitable man.
Vincent van Gogh.
During his lifetime, he sold only a single painting.
Treated as a madman by those around him, he lived a life of hardship amidst loneliness and isolation.
However, Van Gogh left behind the following magnificent quote:
“I want to express something comforting in pictures, as music does.”
He knew that work or art that cannot move anyone’s heart, that cannot comfort anyone, holds no value.
After Van Gogh passed away, who was it that spread his artwork to the world?
It was his brother, Theo, and Theo’s wife, Jo.
Theo had also continued to support Van Gogh and passed away shortly after him, as if following his brother’s footsteps.
Jo, who was left behind holding a young child, continued to protect Van Gogh’s paintings.
Jo said:
“In addition to the child, Theo left me another mission—to have Vincent’s work seen by many people and to have its true value recognized.”
Precisely because this baton of obsession existed, we are able to shed tears while looking at Van Gogh’s paintings today.
Your current suffering will also surely turn into a light that warms someone’s heart someday.
Your life is by no means in vain.
Maruyama Okyo’s beautiful screen paintings, Van Gogh’s sunflowers of passion, and Mimi Takamizawa’s digital artworks—all exist solely to save “you” who stand right in front of them.
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.
— The Bible (New Testament, Galatians 2:20)
I offer my everything to you.
— Osamu Dazai
Postscript
Thank you so very much for reading until the very end.
I will never forget that I was able to have such a deep conversation of the soul with you.
Are you aware that you carry a tinge of loneliness within you as you live your life?
It is to comfort that heart of yours that Mimi Takamizawa’s artwork was created.
This is art meant to heal your heart.
Here, please allow me to speak just a little bit about myself, the painter named Mimi Takamizawa (高見沢 耳).
I intentionally do not use traditional canvas and brushes.
I create all of my works within a digital environment, utilizing modern technology.
Then, I print them onto the highest quality printmaking paper using a state-of-the-art technique called the “giclée print method.”
Why digital?
Because I want to create images that reach the heart of “you,” who live in this current era, in the most direct way possible.
The themes of my work are your eyes/my eyes, Christianity, eternity, psychology, truth, gaze, history, loneliness, isolation, hardship, resurrection, and liberation.
These might sound like difficult words, but they are stories very close to home.
A painter is not a mere expressionist.
I want to be a doctor who saves your soul.
An artist’s work is a full service performed by paying one’s own way.
It is an absolute devotion to you.
An artist offers up his entire life to you, who are right in front of him.
Please, do not abandon me.
Please laugh at me plenty, thinking of me as an awkward man.
I grow stronger by being laughed at.
I will continue to deliver this desperate service to you from here on out.
Because an artist’s work is, in essence, being a dedicated clown.
I am a man of patience.
I am an indomitable man.
I never give up.
The reason I resolved to become a painter was because I learned of that intense way of life of Vincent van Gogh.
The “Mimi” (meaning “Ear”) in my name, Mimi Takamizawa, was chosen by myself in honor of that famous ear-slitting incident of Van Gogh.
I want to catch all of your suffering with my ears, with my eyes.
It is the proof of that obsession.
I know that all the masterpieces of the past were not painted solely by innate talent, but were given birth through decades of muddy trial and error.
I will continue to draw “eyes” inside my artwork tirelessly.
Why? Because by continuing to draw eyes within the picture, I want to keep feeling you, my precious one, on the other side of the screen.
I want to know you, who are right in front of me, more deeply.
I respect Mr. Tokuji Munetsugu of CoCo Ichibanya from the bottom of my heart, and today as well, I am exerting all my strength into creating my art without ever looking sideways.
I have cast away all hobbies and play.
If I can heal your heart even for a single moment, I will gladly become a clown as many times as it takes.
May your life become even a little more wonderful starting tomorrow.
I am always here, gazing upon you, and praying for you.
Lastly, I present to you that great quote by Henry Ford, which serves as the compass of my life:
“Most people think of success as something to get. But in reality, success is about giving.”
I will continue to give all of my art to you, with my true heart poured into it.
Thank you so truly much for meeting me.
