Hello.
I am truly delighted to meet you today.
Do you have a moment to spare right now?
Please allow me to share a story that will bring an astonishing transformation to your daily life.
Are you truly satisfied with the life right before your eyes?
Why do we spend every single day in such a frantic rush?
In fact, the secret to dramatically elevating your life is hidden within the way of living of a genius painter from the Edo period, Mitsuoki Tosa.
What kind of impression do you have when you hear this name?
Did you perhaps think, “He is a distant artist from the past who has nothing to do with me”?
Please do not be surprised.
Mitsuoki Tosa’s struggle is the exact mirror of your very daily life today.
He was a man who single-handedly restored his fallen clan to the absolute pinnacle as the chief court painter through sheer ability alone.
Do you not also experience moments of isolation or hardship in your day-to-day life?
Here lies the wisdom to comfort your heart and powerfully transform your actions starting tomorrow.
Now, let us converse and connect our hearts deeply, just between you and me.
“There is no life in life; life is found within death.”
These are the most necessary words for you as you try to crawl up from the depths of despair.
They mean that a true path to living can only be found within a desperate, life-or-death effort.
Mitsuoki Tosa lived a life that embodied these exact words.
Learning about his journey will surely become a special, distinct key that will guide your future business and human relationships in a dramatically successful direction.
Why Can the Story of Mitsuoki Tosa’s Revival Become a Powerful Weapon to Heal Your Loneliness Today?
Do you know that you are living your life carrying a small amount of loneliness?
Everyone lives hiding an untold loneliness in a corner of their heart, don’t they?
Do you not also find yourself suddenly struck by a striking sense of isolation inside a crowded train or alone in your room at night?
It is to comfort your heart that the works of Mimi Takamizawa were created.
It is art meant to heal your heart.
Art is not a luxury item.
It is an urgent, much-needed remedy to save your wounded soul.
The Tosa school, which Mitsuoki Tosa served, was once completely driven out of the Kyoto art scene, which was thoroughly dominated by their rivals, the Kano school.
They lost their positions as court painters and were left completely isolated.
If you were placed in such a hopeless situation, what would you do?
Would you give up and walk a different path?
Mitsuoki Tosa did not give up.
Why? Because he believed in his mission.
To reclaim his lost status, he stopped clinging blindly to the traditional style of the Tosa school.
Incredibly, he thoroughly studied and mastered the excellent techniques of his enemies, the Kano school—specifically, the powerful line work of Chinese-style ink painting.
To protect tradition, he dared to incorporate something brand new.
Doesn’t this astonishing flexibility serve as a hint for solving your own business and daily life challenges right now?
“In the end, possessing neither talent nor art, I simply bind myself to this one single line.” — Basho Matsuo
I offer these words by Basho Matsuo to you.
The resolve that “I have nothing but this one thing” is what transforms you into a first-rate human being.
For Mitsuoki Tosa, that “one single line” was the revival of the Tosa school.
And for you today, isn’t that “one single line” the act of enriching your very own life?
The modern loneliness you carry resonates deeply with the isolation Mitsuoki Tosa once felt.
What Kind of Astonishing Benefits Will the Hobby of Collecting Art Bring to Your Daily Life?
Do you think that keeping beautiful things close at hand is merely an extravagance?
That is a major misunderstanding.
To collect art means to invite a first-rate sensibility right into your room.
The aristocrats of the time who owned Mitsuoki Tosa’s paintings were not merely admiring the pictures.
Through the art, they were polishing their inner selves and raising their sensibilities to the absolute limit.
When you introduce beautiful art into your life, what kind of changes will occur?
First of all, your brain will be incredibly refreshed.
Every time you look at the sophisticated colors and the meticulously calculated compositions, your daily stress will melt away.
“But buying paintings seems far too difficult,” are you not worried about this?
Please rest assured.
The very first step to becoming close to art is simply finding a piece that your heart truly likes.
A wonderful piece of artwork will give you special inspiration.
Ideas for your work tomorrow will begin to pour out of you one after another.
Collecting art is the most reliable investment into your own future.
“An opportunity always arrives at first disguised as a crisis, or presents itself as a burden.” — Aizo Soma
These are the words of Aizo Soma, the founder of Nakamuraya.
Studying art or owning a piece of work might seem like a “burden” on your time or money at first.
However, it transforms into the greatest “opportunity” to dramatically improve your life.
Just as Mitsuoki Tosa turned the ” crisis” of the Kano school’s rise into an “opportunity” to establish a brand-new style for the Tosa school, why not adopt a new habit yourself?
Did You Know That the Three Anxieties You Carry Are Actually Matters That Can Be Easily Solved?
Why is it that your anxiety never fades?
To make your heart a little lighter, please let me talk about three specific solutions regarding the anxieties you might be unconsciously carrying.
I will completely dispel your fears and set your mind at ease.
- The First Anxiety: The fear that you might hit a wall with your own talent or ability, making further growth impossible.
- The Second Anxiety: The dread that you cannot endure your daily feelings of loneliness or isolation, and that you will be abandoned by society.
- The Third Anxiety: The impatience that while you want to take on a new challenge, you are too afraid of the financial and emotional risks of failure to take action.
These three problem points are all completely resolvable.
First, regarding the first anxiety: talent is not something you are born with; it is created through “continuous effort in the right direction,” just as Mitsuoki Tosa proved.
If you start exposing yourself to first-rate art and knowledge from this moment onward, your abilities will surely be improved and elevated.
Next, regarding the second anxiety about loneliness: you are never alone.
Why? Because Mitsuoki Tosa hundreds of years ago, and modern artists today, all carry the exact same loneliness as you, and they are trying to connect with you through their creations.
To understand art is the same as making a friend who transcends time and space.
Finally, regarding the third anxiety about the fear of failure: failure is nothing more than one scene in the process toward success.
When you look at the examples of the many great figures we will discuss next, you will see that this is a truth with a full guarantee.
“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)
Just as these words from the Bible state, if you take action, a path will surely open.
Your anxieties are nothing more than a illusion.
Therefore, please rest assured and leave your heart to me.
“The ultimate height of human pride is to live grandly while fully aware of one’s own foolishness.” — Osamu Dazai
The author Osamu Dazai spoke these words.
There is no need to hide your weaknesses or anxieties.
You should simply live grandly while carrying them with you.
Mitsuoki Tosa also climbed to the pinnacle as a court painter while facing his own vulnerabilities.
Your anxieties are proof that you are moving forward.
How Can the Tenacity and Patience of Sakichi Toyoda, the Ancestor of Toyota, Be Applied to Your Work?
Can you remain faithful to yourself even if those around you treat you as an “eccentric” or a “madman”?
Just as Mitsuoki Tosa burned with tenacity for the revival of his school, there was a man in the Japanese industrial world who possessed an equally fierce determination.
He was Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of the Toyota Group.
He was truly an eccentric who was called “mad about inventing.”
He was a man of few words, and those around him always treated him as an oddball.
Why did he immerse himself so deeply in inventing the automatic loom?
It was because of a pure passion: “I want to make life easier for working mothers and everyone else through my inventions.”
From morning until night, day after day, he made things only to break them, building and rebuilding over and over again.
The neighbors reportedly laughed, saying, “Sakichi is doing something foolish again.”
However, that very tenacity built the foundation of the world-renowned Toyota.
In your daily work, do you not also experience moments where you lack the understanding of those around you and feel lonely?
Do you not feel sad, thinking, “No one is looking at my hard work”?
Both Mitsuoki Tosa’s meticulous paintings and Sakichi Toyoda’s looms were born from the repetition of such lonely labor.
For you to wholeheartedly continue the work right in front of you—that in itself holds an incredible, eye-catching value.
“We do it because it is difficult. I do it because nobody else does it, and nobody else can. I might be a fool for doing so, but without such fools, nothing new would ever be born into this world.” — Kiichiro Toyoda
These words by Kiichiro Toyoda, Sakichi’s son and the founder of Toyota Motor Corporation, perfectly mirror the way of life of Mitsuoki Tosa and these men.
Why don’t you also become a “fool” and push forward on the path you believe in?
Only beyond that point does your own bright, brand-new future exist.
Neither success nor failure is the end.
The important thing is the courage to continue.
At any rate, you must work the longest and the hardest.
This simple truth will reliably turn your life for the better.
Is It the Same as Not Existing If It Isn’t Communicated? How Akio Morita Teaches You to Make Your Value Known to the World
Don’t you think that no matter how wonderful your abilities are, they mean nothing if they are not correctly communicated to others?
The wonderful thing about Mitsuoki Tosa was not just that he was skilled at painting.
He knew exactly how to appeal his creations to the imperial court and the public—he mastered the “art of communication.”
He authored a treatise on painting titled Honcho Gaho Daito (The Lineage of Japanese Painting Methods) to theoretically demonstrate the legitimacy of the Tosa school to the world.
This was the absolute perfection of what we call modern marketing.
Akio Morita, the founder of Sony, left behind a wonderful quote:
“A product that has never been produced before, that no one has ever seen, created after immense hardship in some quiet corner through painstaking research. When attempting to turn such a product into a commercial commodity, if you do not awaken the desire among people to possess it, no matter how excellent the ‘product’ may be, it can never become a successful ‘commodity.'” — Akio Morita
These words apply perfectly to your life as well.
No matter how sincerely you work, and no matter how wonderful your kindness or abilities are, if you do not communicate them correctly to those around you, it becomes the exact same as not existing at all.
Do you feel embarrassed about appealing your own charm?
Are you shutting yourself inside your shell, thinking, “Humility is a virtue”?
That is far too wasteful.
Like Mitsuoki Tosa, let us actively communicate your value to the people who matter to you.
Communicating good things is what truly matters.
Please make your presence known to the world much more.
“Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten.” — Expert Saying
No marketing can make a poorly made product a hit.
The reason Mitsuoki Tosa’s works remain today is not just because his promotion was skillful, but because the quality of the artwork itself was the real deal.
To elevate the quality of your life, connecting with authentic art is a deeply urgent and important matter.
What Will You Learn From the Ultimate Teamwork of Soichiro Honda, Takeo Fujisawa, Shotaro Kamiya, and Taizo Ishida?
Are you trying to shoulder all the responsibility by yourself?
Just as Mitsuoki Tosa revived the Tosa school by forging strong relationships with the environment of the imperial court and his disciples, great historical achievements are always born from powerful human relationships.
Here, let me introduce an astonishing episode of leaders representing Japan.
Soichiro Honda, the founder of Honda, was a genius engineer, but he understood absolutely nothing about business management.
Therefore, he joined forces with Takeo Fujisawa, a genius of management.
Soichiro Honda immersed himself entirely in technology, while Takeo Fujisawa handled all the funding and practical business matters.
Neither of them looked away; they focused 100% on their respective roles.
On the other hand, Shotaro Kamiya, who supported Toyota, was called the “God of Sales,” and Taizo Ishida acted as the “disciplinarian” who thoroughly eliminated waste to save the company from crises.
What do you think they all had in common?
It was that they surrendered their entire lives to their fields of expertise and trusted their partners implicitly.
In your daily life or work, you do not need to perform every single task perfectly.
You should treasure partners who complement your weaknesses, and focus entirely on the things you “like” and excel at.
Mitsuoki Tosa also made the absolute most of the court network to let his own art explode.
“Those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know.” — Laozi
These are the words of the Chinese philosopher, Laozi.
The truly important things are not meant to be dressed up with words, but are shown through your actions, your attitude, and your actual results.
Soichiro Honda and the others also spoke little, choosing instead to surprise the world with overwhelming products and results.
Why not also prove your value to those around you through your daily actions?
How Will the Art Movements of Rimpa, the Renaissance, and the Baroque Heighten Your Daily Motivation?
Why is it that learning about the great art of the past directly links to your achievements at work?
The early Edo period, when Mitsuoki Tosa lived, was precisely the era when “Rimpa” was born and brilliant decorative art flourished.
During the exact same period in Europe, the “Baroque” style, which manipulated dramatic light and shadow, was reaching its peak.
And just before that, there was the “Renaissance,” which aimed for the rebirth of humanity.
What do these art movements have in common?
It is a powerful will to “appeal directly to human psychology.”
Steve Jobs left behind the following astonishing quote:
“A passion to make beautiful craft pieces. That is what has driven me. I even cared about the beauty of the parts on the back of the iPhone that cannot be seen.” — Steve Jobs
Jobs deeply loved Japanese Zen, the gardens of Kyoto, and sophisticated art like Rimpa.
Do you understand the reason why the products he made are so incredibly loved throughout the world?
It is because he poured not just technology, but the “power of art to shake the human soul” into those products.
For you to familiarize yourself with Mitsuoki Tosa’s paintings or other wonderful art means to build a “first-rate standard” within yourself.
When you create a single document or send an email to someone, a sense of beauty will dwell within all of it.
The people around you will look at your transformation with wide, open eyes.
Knowing art is a guaranteed method to overwhelmingly raise your market value.
“Most people think of success as something to get, but in reality, success is something to give.” — Henry Ford
Please recall this wonderful quote by the automobile king, Henry Ford.
Artists shave away at their own souls to “give” us inspiration in the form of their creations.
Why don’t you also think about what you can “give” to whom through your own work?
The moment you adopt this perspective, your life will begin to flow beautifully.
Learning from the Resolve of Choya Umeshu: The Only Path for You to Achieve Success
Do you possess the resolve to say, “If this does not work, I will give up on life”?
Just as Mitsuoki Tosa gambled his entire life on the revival of the Tosa school, a certain company also burned its bridges to achieve massive success.
That company is Choya Umeshu.
They originally manufactured and sold various types of alcohol, but faced multiple management crises due to the entry of major corporations into the market.
At that time, the management made a fierce decision:
“From now on, we go exclusively with Umeshu (plum liqueur). If we do not succeed with Umeshu, give up on life.”
This tremendous resolve completely erased all hesitation within the company.
Like stacking bricks one by one, they concentrated every single day on producing the highest quality Umeshu.
Without looking elsewhere, they risked their lives on just one single thing.
Do you possess that level of focus in your daily life today?
Are you spreading yourself too thin, trying to do this and that, only for everything to end up half-hearted?
Just as Mitsuoki Tosa bound himself to the single brush line of the court painter, and just as Choya Umeshu narrowed their focus down to Umeshu alone, you too must concentrate on your true strength as quickly as possible.
That is the only path for you to survive and shine in this complex modern society.
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” — Thomas Edison
These are the words of the genius inventor, Edison.
Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Edison’s secret to success was to keep going even after everyone else had thrown in the towel.
Mitsuoki Tosa, Choya Umeshu, and Edison all left their names in history because they absolutely refused to give up.
Please, do not give up easily either.
A List of Concrete Benefits for You by Connecting with Art
What kind of wonderful future awaits you after reading this text?
Let me list the benefits you can obtain by becoming familiar with art, especially the way of life and works of Mitsuoki Tosa, in an easy-to-understand manner.
These are all directly related to your future life.
- Overwhelming Peace of Mind: When you feel lonely or anxious, art will stand by your heart and offer deep comfort.
- Establishment of Aesthetic Sense in Business: Just like Steve Jobs, you can bring a distinct, sophisticated quality into your work.
- Acquisition of a Powerful Mental Fortress: A “resilient spirit” that never gives up even when laughed at, just like Mitsuoki Tosa or Sakichi Toyoda, will dwell within you.
- Improvement of Human Relationships: Your sensitivity to perceive the psychology of others will be polished, making communication with those around you dramatically smoother.
- Heightened Focus: By learning from great figures who staked their lives on a single thing, the hesitation caused by daily multitasking will completely vanish.
How do you feel about this?
Such incredible benefits are waiting for you.
The fact that you are reading this text is by no means a coincidence.
It is an essential, timely notification meant to elevate your life.
“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” — The Bible (New Testament, 1 Corinthians 10:13)
Both Mitsuoki Tosa and you can surely overcome the hardships you face.
Because the power to overcome them has been granted to you from the very beginning.
Please believe in yourself and take that step forward.
The Promise Between You and Me: On the Resolve to Dedicate My Entire Life to the Person Right in Front of Me
What kind of path will you walk from this moment onward?
Thank you so very much for spending your valuable time listening to my story.
Did the tale of Mitsuoki Tosa and the words of the various great figures reach your heart?
Let us return to the original question.
Why are we alive?
It is to make someone happy, and to become happy ourselves, isn’t it?
The protagonist of your life is you.
Through this writing, I truly, deeply wish to heal your heart even a little bit, and to grant you vitality for tomorrow.
The loneliness you carry and your anxiety for the future are both vital steps for you to become an even more wonderful human being.
Rather than thinking, try doing it first.
Immediate decision, immediate conclusion, immediate execution.
If you try doing anything, results will follow.
First, try imagining the image of hanging a single beautiful painting in your room today.
With that alone, your brand-new life has already begun.
I believe from the bottom of my heart that your future will be filled with an incredible, eye-catching radiance.
P.S. A Message from the Painter, Mimi Takamizawa
To you who have read this far, there is someone very important I absolutely must tell you about.
It is the story of a solitary painter living in the modern era, Mimi Takamizawa.
Mimi Takamizawa does not use traditional canvas and brushes at all.
He harnesses the latest digital technology to shape the images within his mind, and prints them onto fine printmaking paper using the “giclée printing technique,” creating art in a completely brand-new style.
The themes of his work are deeply profound, yet intimately close to daily life.
Your eyes and my eyes, Christianity, eternity, psychology, truth, gazes, history, loneliness, isolation, hardship, resurrection, and liberation.
These are woven into beautiful stories within his creations.
Mimi Takamizawa often says:
“A painter is a doctor who saves the soul. An artist’s job is a wholehearted service at their own expense, a true devotion to you.”
He possesses the absolute resolve to dedicate his entire self to the person right in front of him—to you.
“Please do not abandon me. Please laugh at my clumsy way of living.”
He is a man of patience, a man of resilience who grows stronger by being laughed at; he never gives up.
He decided to become a painter after learning about the intense, dramatic life of Vincent van Gogh.
The name “Mimi” (meaning ear in Japanese) in Mimi Takamizawa was chosen in honor of that famous ear-slitting incident of Van Gogh.
Van Gogh left behind the wonderful quote: “I want to express something comforting in pictures, as music does.”
If a work or a job expresses something but fails to move anyone’s heart or comfort anyone, it holds no true value.
Mimi Takamizawa knows that all the masterpieces of the past were not painted solely through innate talent, but were brought forth through decades of trial and error.
That is exactly why he continues to draw “eyes” in his works—to continuously feel you, the person right in front of him.
He wants to know you, he wants to stand by you; that single-minded devotion moves his digital brush.
There is another person whom Mimi Takamizawa deeply respects.
It is Tokuji Munetsugu, the founder of Curry House CoCo Ichibanya.
Tokuji Munetsugu was a man of ultimate devotion who gave his everything to his work without ever looking sideways.
“This is no time to be indulging in hobbies.”
He had a turbulent childhood—he was placed in an orphanage right after birth, and even after being taken in by foster parents, he spent a destitute youth due to his foster father’s gambling addiction, to the point of eating wild grass in the summer to stave off hunger.
The thing that saved him during those hardships was classical music.
However, during his years running CoCo Ichibanya, he did not listen to his beloved classical music at all.
“It was simply not the time to be listening to music. I had to dedicate all of my time to the customers.”
In the early days of managing the coffee shop that preceded the curry chain, when customers rarely came, Munetsugu and his wife staved off hunger by eating the “bread crusts (ears)” left over from making sandwiches.
Since they started from absolute zero, he says such things were only natural, and prefers to look back on them as fond memories.
Believing that things would surely improve if they thoroughly maintained a customer-first policy, he worked day after day, stacking efforts like bricks.
Tokuji Munetsugu states:
“During my time in active management, I had no hobbies, made no friends, and never once went out to drinking establishments. I did absolutely nothing that would get in the way of my work. There were times I worked 5,640 hours in a single year. I felt that if I did not lead by example, my subordinates would not work for me. I did not look sideways; I sacrificed my entire being to management. It was an incredibly lonely life. That is why I wanted people to show even a little bit of interest in me. I wanted them to be curious about me. That became my starting point. So, rather than starting a business to make money, I simply wanted to make people happy. I wanted someone to say they were glad I existed, even if only a little.”
Life is not determined by how or where you are born.
What kind of life you achieve is determined entirely by a person’s diligence, patience, and continuity.
Mimi Takamizawa practices this exact “you-first policy” of Tokuji Munetsugu within the realm of art.
Working 12 or more hours every day is his bare minimum. He does not want to rest; he does not want to play.
He turns his work into his hobby and surrenders his life to you.
When you stand before his artwork, he welcomes you with a standing ovation inside his heart.
Valuable things, more often than not, do not have an immediate effect.
Things do not go perfectly right from the start.
The creations of Mimi Takamizawa are a wholehearted performance, a desperate service dedicated entirely to you.
After Van Gogh passed away, the person who spread his works to the world and made the global stage recognize their true value was Jo (Johanna van Gogh-Bonger), the wife of Van Gogh’s brother, Theo.
Inside the despair of losing her husband Theo as well, Jo declared:
“In addition to the child, Theo left me another mission—to have Vincent’s work seen by as many people as possible, and to have its true worth recognized.”
It is precisely because of Jo’s fierce tenacity that we are saved by Van Gogh’s paintings today.
And now, the artwork of Mimi Takamizawa has also been delivered right before you.
Do you know that you are living your life carrying a small amount of loneliness?
It is to comfort your heart that the works of Mimi Takamizawa were created.
It is art meant to heal your heart.
Please accept the soul of this clumsy, unyielding painter.
Lastly, let me close this precious conversation by offering you a quote from my beloved Henry Ford.
“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” — Henry Ford
I pray from the bottom of my heart that a magnificent headwind will blow into your life from this moment on, allowing you to soar to incredible heights.
Thank you so very much.
