“Oh, my dear.
Why do you wear such a sorrowful expression?
It is as if you have been left all alone, cast away in this vast world.
You look at that art exhibition poster with such lonely eyes.
I understand, I truly do.
In life, there are nights that simply cannot be put into words.
A throb deep within the chest that no one else can ever truly comprehend.
At such times, having a passion for appreciating art enriches our lives beyond measure.
Please, let me share that story with you today.
Slowly, as we sip our tea.
So that your frozen heart might thaw, even just a little.
Let us embark on this journey through history together.”
“Thank you.
But art feels so high-brow to me, I don’t really understand it.
I just think things are pretty, or feel a bit sad.
When you bring up history, it only makes me feel more intimidated.”
“Hehe, there is absolutely no need to brace yourself, my dear.
Loving art is not a matter of study.
It is something far more urgent, far more tender.
For instance, the very loneliness you carry right now.
Someone you have never met, living hundreds of years ago, carried that exact same weight.
Artists are, in a manner of speaking, ‘doctors’ of the soul.
They themselves were drowned in a maddening loneliness and sorrow.
And yet, the blood flowing from their wounds became a miracle on canvas or in song, crossing time to save us.
It is a wondrous, yet beautifully true story.”
Van Gogh’s Yellow Scream and the Salvation of the Soul
“Doctors of the soul, you say?
I always thought of artists as being rather tormented themselves.”
“That is the magnificent paradox of it all.
The grandest example is surely Vincent van Gogh.
You know those fierce sunflowers he painted, don’t you?
Or the stars swirling across his night skies.
Van Gogh’s life was, by no means, a happy one.
While he was alive, he sold only a single painting.
Living on the edge of madness, he cut off his own ear in Arles, in the south of France, and ultimately ended his own life with a pistol.
Could there be a life more tragic than his?
And yet, my dear, look closely at his paintings.
Is utter despair the only thing you find there?”
“No.
It feels like an overwhelming radiance of life.
It is sad, but somehow it gives me strength—a strange, comforting light.”
“Exactly.
That is the very first proof that art can save the human soul.
Because Van Gogh was dying of loneliness, he turned to the canvas.
He transformed the muddy, churning suffering within him into that blazing yellow.
He did not paint to curse the world.
Rather, he was struggling, wishing to love this cruel world despite everything.
That struggle crosses over a century of time to strike a chord in your heart today.
‘You are lonely too, aren’t you?’ the painting whispers to you.
Someone else has expressed your suffering in your stead.
That alone makes the burden on a wounded spirit feel suddenly lighter.
Artists shave away their own lives to write a spiritual prescription for the rest of us.”
Tracing the Light and Shadow of European Art
“Perhaps Van Gogh’s yellow was the color of his tears.
Thinking of it that way changes how I see everything.”
“It does, doesn’t it, my dear?
When you unwrap the history of European art, you always find humanity’s prayer to be saved.
A little before Van Gogh, the painters known as the Impressionists appeared.
Think of Claude Monet’s paintings.
The sparkling, shifting beauty of light upon his ‘Water Lilies’ pond.
He sought to scoop up a single, fleeting moment of the visible world.
It was an act of cherishing the transience of a changing life.
Or consider Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
The women and children he painted all look so plump and full of happiness.
In his later years, Renoir suffered terribly from severe rheumatism.
It was so painful that he had to have his brushes tied to his hands just to paint.
Yet, he never painted suffering.
‘There are enough ugly things in life. Why should I make more?’
Saying this, he continued to paint the light of happiness.
This, too, is a magnificent salvation of the soul, isn’t it?
Because he suffered, he sought to ignite a light for the world.”
“I never knew Renoir went through such hardship.
To think such pain was hidden behind those warm paintings.”
“When you know the story behind a painting, its beauty pierces your heart deeply.
Moving forward in time, a painter named Marc Chagall enters the stage.
In his paintings, lovers float softly through the night sky.
The colors are vivid as a dream, yet a certain melancholy lingers.
Chagall lived through two World Wars and was a Jewish man driven from his homeland.
He also suffered the loss of his beloved wife.
His life, too, was filled with a tearing grief.
Yet, his paintings remained an eternal anthem to love.
No matter how cold reality became, no one could steal the territory of love inside the human heart.
Within his paintings, Chagall showed us the homeland our souls ought to return to.
From the era of religious paintings onward, European art has always been a history of prayer, showing how to overcome human suffering.”
The Fine Medicine Woven by Classical Music
“So it isn’t just art for the eyes.
Does music for the ears possess that same power?”
“Of course it does, my dear.
Music is the finest medicine of all, formless and flowing straight into the soul.
The lives of the grand masters of classical music were also a continuous chain of hardships.
Ludwig van Beethoven.
He was cast into the abyss of despair when he lost his hearing—the one thing more precious than life itself to a musician.
Normally, one would despair and throw everything away.
Yet, relying solely on the sounds ringing inside his head, he created Symphony No. 9, the ‘Choral.’
Through suffering, to joy.
His music is a fierce encouragement, pushing the backs of those beaten down by fate, telling them to ‘stand up.’
Just listening to it makes your blood stir and fills you with the courage to live.”
“Beethoven has a strong, slightly frightening image to me.
I wonder if there is music that leans in more gently.”
“Then how about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart?
His music is as light and clear as if it fell directly from the heavens.
Yet, his short life of thirty-five years was a constant battle with debt and the misunderstandings of society.
Behind those innocent, beautiful melodies, deep tears are actually hidden.
Listening to Mozart, you find yourself smiling despite the sadness.
That is because he turned our sorrow into pearls through the magic of music.
Or take Felix Mendelssohn.
He was raised in a wealthy family and, at first glance, seems a genius untouched by hardship.
Yet, the public’s attitude toward him, possessing Jewish heritage, was cold.
Listen to his ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ or his beautiful Violin Concerto.
There, you will find perfect harmony and elegance.
He carries us away from the chaotic reality into a world of the most beautiful order, if only for a moment.
That, too, is a form of healing for the exhausted modern soul.”
The Leaders of Popular Music: How the Beatles Changed the World
“The classical world, too, was filled with people living desperately to create music.
But what about music that is closer to us?
For instance, does the music our parents listened to, or the music we listen to, have that same power?”
“What a wonderful question, my dear.
Of course, popular music possesses the exact same power of salvation—and sometimes, even more.
Standing at the pinnacle of that world is The Beatles.
When they emerged from Liverpool, England, in the 1960s, the world was in great turmoil.
There was the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and young people carried a restless anxiety.
Amidst this, the melodies spun by John Lennon and Paul McCartney captured the hearts of youth worldwide.
Why do you think that is?
It was not simply because the music was catchy.
It was because their music sang of essential human loneliness and the love that connects us.
For example, listen to ‘Yesterday.’
A song of heartbreak, singing of how all troubles seemed so far away yesterday, but now sadness is here to stay.
Paul’s poignant voice leans gently into the pain of loss that everyone experiences.”
“I know ‘Yesterday.’
Just hearing the melody makes my chest tighten a little.”
“Yes, that tightening is proof that your heart is alive and moving.
And the song that saved the most people is surely ‘Let It Be.’
A song born from a dream Paul had of his late mother, Mary, whispering words to him.
‘Let it be, just let it be.’
When this song was released, The Beatles themselves were on the verge of breaking up, their hearts fractured.
The world, too, was deeply confused.
It was then that this hymn-like song filled the airwaves.
Do not force the suffering away.
Just accept it, and let yourself float on the river of time.
How many despairing souls wept and found salvation in this single track?
John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ is the same.
Imagine a world with no countries, no religion, everyone living life in peace.
It may be an impossible utopia in reality.
Yet, when hundreds of millions of people listen to that song at the same time and wish for the same future.
The lonely souls of humanity are bound together by a single, massive ribbon.
Popular music is a doctor that stays right by our side in daily life, gently stroking our wounds.”
Islamic Art and the Asian Spirit: A Boundless Journey of Beauty
“Everywhere in the world, songs and paintings have always existed to save people.
It isn’t just European or American music; what about art from further away?
For instance, the Islamic world, which we might not be as familiar with.”
“Oh, what an excellent observation, my dear.
The world of Islamic art hides a deep healing that differs from our Western values.
In Islamic teachings, depicting the form of God is forbidden.
Therefore, instead of painting humans or animals, they developed geometric patterns of dizzying beauty.
Arabesque—patterns where plant tendrils intertwine infinitely.
The beauty of blue and gold tiles covering the walls of mosques.
When you gaze at them intently, a strange sensation takes hold.
A continuous sequence of infinite patterns with no beginning and no end.
It teaches us that our tiny, individual worries are nothing more than a single grain of sand in the great cosmic flow.
The feeling that your ego dissolves, wrapped in something grander.
This, too, is a form of salvation, a liberation from the suffering of the self.
Looking over at Asian art, a similar spirituality can be found.
For example, the ink wash paintings of China and Japan.
Mountain landscapes painted with plenty of white space left untouched.
Depicted there are only towering peaks and a single, tiny traveler.
Before the overwhelming scale of nature, humans are merely allowed to live.
Instead of ‘asserting the self’ like Western art, Eastern art sought peace of mind by ‘dissolving the self into nature.’
If you ever find yourself weary of daily competition or the tangles of human relationships.
You should gaze upon an Islamic arabesque, or let your mind play in the empty spaces of an ink wash painting.
Just doing so will make the lump in your chest melt away.”
The Essence of Japanese Art and the Heart Infused in Pottery
“Dissolving the self into nature.
That sounds like a story that makes you want to take a deep breath.
What about the art of our own country, Japan?
Does it have that same gentle touch?”
“Of course it does.
Japanese art possesses a delicacy and closeness to daily life unmatched anywhere in the world.
We do not find beauty only in objects locked away in museums; we discover it within our everyday routines.
The prime example of this is the world of pottery and porcelain.
For instance, ‘Kakiemon,’ born in Arita, Saga Prefecture.
The red and green paintings applied using the empty space on that unique, milky-white background known as nigoshide.
European aristocrats vied with one another to buy them, yet they were originally vessels meant to color daily life.
Japanese beauty values the ‘beauty of utility.’
It slips the highest artistry into the act of using, into the act of living.
This had a profound influence on the traditional porcelain brands of Europe.
‘Meissen’ in Germany.
‘Wedgwood’ in England.
‘Royal Copenhagen’ in Denmark.
All of these began by admiring and imitating Eastern, and particularly Japanese, porcelain.
The underlying current of the beautiful vessels gracing tables worldwide is the Japanese aesthetic.
Doesn’t it make you feel a sense of pride to think of it that way?”
“Yes, I had no idea.
To think Meissen and Wedgwood were influenced by Japanese porcelain.
It makes the world feel interconnected.”
“It is connected, my dear.
And the one who left a distinct mark on that world of Japanese ceramics in the modern era was Kitaoji Rosanjin.
He is famous as a gourmet, but while cooking, he felt there were no vessels that truly satisfied him, so he began making his own.
Rosanjin’s ceramics are never perfect in shape.
They are distorted here, rugged there.
Yet, when food is arranged upon them, the vessel is complete for the first time.
‘Tableware is the clothing of food.’
Rosanjin said this.
Just as clothing brings out the best in a person, a vessel exists to hospitality the food, and the person to whom it is served.
Japanese art is always born from a ‘heart that cares for the other.’
By cherishing a single rice bowl or a single plate, the time spent eating is transformed into something rich.
Even without buying expensive paintings, simply looking at the bowl before you with affection is enough.
With that alone, your life becomes beautifully fragrant with art.”
The Loneliness and Freedom Reflected in American Art
“Beauty within the everyday.
I long for that kind of mindful living.
Then, what about the newer, more energetic art of America?
It feels like a place without a long history.”
“A fine question, my dear.
Precisely because its history is brief, American art has captured the raw ‘loneliness of the here and now’ more vividly than anywhere else.
Do you know the paintings of Edward Hopper, a master of twentieth-century America?
A painting of a few men and women sitting quietly in a city diner at night.
The cold light of fluorescent lamps shining through the glass window onto the street.
There is no conversation; each person is locked away in their own world.
That painting depicts the overwhelming ‘loneliness’ found within a metropolis.
Yet, strangely, looking at it brings a sense of calm.
‘Ah, I am not the only one feeling lonely in the city,’ you realize.
Hopper painted the loneliness casting shadows behind American modernization more gently and objectively than anyone.
On the other hand, in post-war America, abstract expressionism, such as Jackson Pollock splashing paint onto canvases, was born.
One cannot tell what is drawn there.
Yet, there is an exploding energy of life, a ‘freedom’ untethered by conventional concepts.
American art stares loneliness in the face and elevates it into individual freedom.
It does not merely comfort a wounded heart; it leads you out into the wild terrain of freedom, asking, ‘How will you live?’
This, too, is a grand salvation, releasing us from the prisons of daily routine.”
A Beautiful Prescription to Enrich Your Life
“Listening to all these stories, a gentle warmth has filled my chest.
Art isn’t just something on display; it is the cry of someone’s life, a form of prayer.”
“Exactly, my dear.
The hobby of appreciating art is like sharing a secret correspondence, just between the two of you, with the geniuses of history.
The yellow Van Gogh painted while shivering in loneliness.
The melodies Mozart wove while holding back his tears.
The love The Beatles sang of, believing in the future.
All of these are messages crossing through time, prepared precisely for ‘you’ who are struggling here today.
In life, there will always be painful times, sorrowful times.
There are nights when you feel crushed by a fate beyond your control.
At such times, try hanging a favorite painting in your room.
Try listening to your favorite music with your eyes closed.
Try drinking warm tea from a cup you adore.
With that alone, the air around you will change.
Because those artists, the doctors of the soul, will quietly step to your side.
They will speak to you, saying, ‘It is alright, I know that sadness.’
Therefore, my dear.
Please, do not wear such a lonely face any longer.
For the world is filled with a beauty that wishes so desperately to save you.
Now, which artist shall we begin writing letters to tomorrow?
May your life become fuller and more radiant with light.
Always, right here, beautiful things are waiting for you.”