“Tsugaru” – Dazai Osamu’s masterpiece
Ah, it is truly unbearable. This world we live in—how did it become so suffocating, yet so slovenly, like the unsettling smile of an aging lady who has applied far too much powder? I sit here at my de […]
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English blog post
The genius of Shuji Terayama
Oh, goodness, what a truly extraordinary thing it is. In this world, there exist certain feverish presences that one simply cannot avoid. I wonder, do you happen to know the true nature of such a thin […]
A person abandoned in their hometown
Greetings. In this world of ours, so blunt and crude that it feels as if people walk about purposefully trampling roadside dandelions with their heavy military boots, I wonder if you, too, are still l […]
The loneliness of Tsuguharu Fujita
Ah, truly, why is this world so clamorous, yet at the same time, so unfathomably lonely? Don’t you think so, too? Just stop for a moment and gaze at your own shadow. There, you will find a strange voi […]
Painter of the Night
Hey there, you. Won’t you sit there for a moment and listen to my trivial, yet world-shakingly important story? Outside, it is raining cats and dogs. It’s as if the heavens have overturned a mas […]
About the painter Caravaggio
Oh, no, you must not. Please, do not stand there with such a furrowed brow, looking as though you’ve shouldered all the misfortunes of this weary world. You resemble a philosopher staring at a single […]
The Blue Fire of Edo: A Monologue on Suzuki Kiitsu
Oh, look at you, staring at me with such wide eyes! Whatever is the matter? Do I sound like I’m mimicking someone? No, don’t say a word. I can see right through to the bottom of your heart, as c […]
Sakai Hōitsu, an Edo Rinpa painter
Sakai Hoitsu was a man so vividly, almost frustratingly, sophisticated that he might leave someone like you feeling utterly bewildered. To a backwoodsman like me, one who is useless whether boiled or […]
Fra Angelico, Dominican friar
Oh, dear me, what a thing to contemplate! Is it truly possible for “purity” to exist in this world, rolled out before us in such a cruelly naked state? Tell me, are you familiar with a man […]
Kitagawa Utamaro, a representative painter of Ukiyo-e.
Kitagawa Utamaro. Just uttering the name somehow stains the air of the room with the faint scent of white face powder, or perhaps makes one feel as if their fingertips have brushed against a piece of […]