Hello.
Would you mind keeping a painter company for a short while during this monologue?
No, this is not a one-sided conversation.
This is an important dialogue between me and “you,” right now, in front of the screen.
How did you spend your day today?
Do you ever feel an indescribable, sharp pang of loneliness deep in your chest?
“Maybe no one truly understands me.”
There must be nights when you, too, find yourself wandering into such a deep darkness of isolation.
Why do we feel so isolated even when surrounded by many people?
Would you be surprised to learn that the answer is held by a man named Aoki Mokubei, a genius painter who lived in the Edo period, 200 years ago?
“In the end, having no talent and no art, I simply cling to this single path.” — Matsuo Basho
Just like this phrase by Basho, the life of Aoki Mokubei, who staked his life on a single path, brings incredible courage and dramatic change to your daily life today.
Everything I am about to tell you is a story directly connected to your own life and your happiness tomorrow.
Please, relax as if the two of us are talking alone together over a warm cup of tea, and read on.
What Are the Eye-Opening and Powerful Benefits that First-Class Art Brings to Formidably Change Your Daily Life?
Art does not fill your stomach, so it has nothing to do with daily life.
Are you thinking along those lines?
If so, that is an incredible waste!
Because engaging with first-class art has powerful benefits that fundamentally elevate your life.
Here, let me introduce the passionately hot words of Soichiro Honda, the founder of Honda.
“The important thing for a human being is not an academic background or anything like that. It is not to step in the footprints of others.” — Soichiro Honda
How about that? Don’t you think it is a refreshing phrase?
When you look at a work of art, you are not just looking at a “pretty picture.”
You are directly absorbing into your own cells the energy of the artists’ “lifelong originality that never imitates others,” which lies behind the work.
This becomes the greatest weapon for carving out your own special, unique life that is completely different from others.
The greatest benefit of engaging with art lies in its powerful ability to broaden your perspective and instantly erase daily stress.
When you gain the peace of mind to feel that beautiful things are beautiful, your work and personal relationships will begin to run incredibly smoothly.
Why? Because art softens your rigid sensibilities and becomes the best energy source for generating new ideas.
This is a guaranteed remedy for enriching your life starting tomorrow.
Why Is Aoki Mokubei’s Hardship of “Hearing Loss” the Perfect Remedy to Erase Your Life’s Anxieties?
Here, let me tell you the story of our main character today, Aoki Mokubei.
Aoki Mokubei was an amazing genius who was active in Kyoto during the late Edo period as both a ceramicist and a painter.
He thoroughly researched ancient Chinese documents and created one brand-new style of ceramic after another that had never existed in Japan before.
However, his life was by no means smooth sailing.
Incredibly, because he exposed himself to the heat and smoke of kilns for many years, he lost almost all of his hearing in his later years.
A world that had lost its sound. What kind of loneliness and fear must that have been?
“Opportunities always come at first disguised as a crisis or appearing as a burden.” — Aizo Soma
This famous quote by Aizo Soma, the founder of Shinjuku Nakamuraya, perfectly represents Mokubei’s life itself.
Losing his hearing was the greatest “crisis” and “hardship” of his life.
However, Aoki Mokubei was not the kind of man to give up in despair.
Precisely because he could no longer hear, he dove deep into his own inner world and concentrated all of his five senses into “vision” and “touch.”
The paintings he drew and the vessels he created came to harbor an eternal silence and a tremendous spirituality, precisely because he had lost sound.
This dramatic turnaround by Mokubei teaches you, living in the present, an important truth.
The “crisis” or “heavy burden” you are currently facing at work or at home might actually be the “best opportunity” for you to transform yourself significantly.
Thinking about it this way, don’t you feel a bit more forward-looking, thinking, “Alright, this is where my true start begins”?
Knowing Mokubei’s hardship is, above all, a powerful medicine that beautifully washes away the anxieties in your heart.
Don’t You Honestly Think the 3 Deep Anxieties You Face in Life Can Be Resolved by the Power of Art?
Here, let us think together about three specific questions and worries that you might secretly harbor in your daily life.
“There is no way an individual’s personal problems can be solved by something like art.”
You might think so, right?
Then, let me answer them one by one, carefully and gently.
[Question 1] “Why am I not being properly evaluated by anyone when I am working so hard?”
You are working harder than anyone else at your workplace or at home, yet you are treated as a matter of course and receive no appreciation or evaluation.
When that happens, your chest tightens with regret and sadness, doesn’t it?
The answer to that worry is taught to us by the words of Takeo Fujisawa, who was the genius right-hand man at Honda.
“It is best when the figure of you working for yourself ends up benefiting others as a result.” — Takeo Fujisawa
Instead of acting out of concern for others’ evaluations, first do “first-class work” that satisfies you yourself.
Aoki Mokubei also paid absolutely no attention to his surrounding reputation and simply pursued his ideal beauty single-mindedly.
By touching art, you will be liberated from the curse of “other people’s eyes” and become able to choose a “way of living that truly satisfies you.”
That firm stance itself is what will ultimately move those around you and draw out the highest evaluation.
[Question 2] “How can I stand up to financial anxiety and the terror of not knowing what the future holds?”
Rising prices and an unstable social climate. The anxiety about a future for which an urgent solution cannot be found slowly eats away at your heart.
Worrying about money extremely narrows a human being’s perspective.
Here, listen closely to the powerful words of Shotaro Kamiya, who was called the god of sales at Toyota Motor.
“Customer first, dealer second, manufacturer third.” — Shotaro Kamiya
The essence of these words is, “Do not look at your own immediate profits, but thoroughly please the person right in front of you first.”
Art is the ultimate “service” and “devotion” that an artist offers by shaving away their own life to please you.
By savoring art, a “rich spirit of giving” buds in your heart.
When you switch to the perspective of “how can I make the person right in front of me happy,” your business and financial circulation will begin to work unbelievably well.
[Question 3] “Am I going to grow older like this and end up completely lonely in the end?”
Human beings are fundamentally alone. Even if a precious person is by your side, you cannot completely integrate your hearts.
Does the fear of that essential “isolation” and “loneliness” ever keep you awake at night?
To wrap your heart in comfort, I offer you the words of Taizo Ishida, the father of the reconstruction of the Toyota Group.
“Protect your own castle by yourself.” — Taizo Ishida
This is not a cold phrase to push you away. It is the highest encouragement, meaning, “Build the peace of your heart within your own inner world, rather than depending on someone else.”
Just as Aoki Mokubei built a sturdy castle of his own art in a world without sound, you too can transform loneliness into a “comfortable silence” by befriending art.
Art exists to prove that you are not alone.
Please experience for yourself how the warm gaze looking at you from the other side of the painting gently dissolves your loneliness.
Why Does Kiichiro Toyoda’s “Spirit of the Fool” Unwind Your Rigidly Hardened Heart with Utmost Tenderness?
In your daily life, have you become unable to take a new step forward because you are afraid of making mistakes?
“If I start something like this, people around me might look at me strangely.”
Restricting your own actions like that is truly painful, isn’t it?
Here, let me introduce the eye-opening and wonderful words of Kiichiro Toyoda, the founder of Toyota Motor.
“I do it precisely because it is difficult. I do it because no one else will or can do it. I might be a fool for doing so, but without those fools, nothing new would be born into the world.” — Kiichiro Toyoda
This is exactly the best breakthrough spirit to smash the status quo!
To the literati of Kyoto at the time, Aoki Mokubei must have looked exactly like a “pottery-crazy fool” who forgot to eat and sleep while facing the kiln covered in mud.
However, it was precisely because he possessed that passion dedicated to being a fool that masterpieces capable of shaking people’s hearts for centuries were born.
When you find that one special thing that allows you to say, “I don’t care what anyone says, I love this!” your life begins to shine in its true sense.
How much easier would your heart feel if you could become a bit clumsy and completely straightforward about your feelings like a “fool,” rather than living cleverly by worrying about other people’s eyes?
The “spirit of the fool” that Kiichiro talks about will unwind your rigidly hardened pride and fear with utmost tenderness and take you to a new world.
What Is the True Identity of the “Loneliness” You Hold Right Now, as Proven by the Words of the Bible and Osamu Dazai?
Do you know that you are living while holding a little bit of loneliness?
That loneliness is not a sign that you are abnormal; it is proof that you are normal as a human being and possess a very pure heart.
Here, I offer you a passage from the Bible, the world’s best-selling book.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” — New Testament, Matthew 11:28
Following this grand word of love, let us place that famous phrase by the genius Showa author, Osamu Dazai, which pierces the essence of human nature.
“An adult is a youth who has been betrayed.” — Osamu Dazai
How about it? Doesn’t the intense contrast between these two phrases pierce deep into the back of your chest?
We grow into adults while keeping the pure hearts of our childhoods, get hurt and betrayed in the rough waves of society, and before we know it, we wear thick armor.
On the inside of that armor, isn’t your soul crying out, “I’m lonely, somebody find me”?
When we gaze intently at Aoki Mokubei’s work, we discover within that painting the soul of a human being who was similarly hurt, yet kept pursuing beauty.
The deep healing spoken of in the Bible and the raw human loneliness exposed by Osamu Dazai.
It is the power of art that embraces and sublimates both.
The true identity of the loneliness you hold is nothing other than a beautiful proof of your heart, showing that you are living desperately in search of true love and truth.
Why Does the Tenacity of Sakichi Toyoda—Who Was Called an Eccentric and Invention-Crazed—Lead Your Tomorrow’s Career to 100% Success?
In your daily work, do you ever feel like breaking down, thinking, “I just want to give up” or “There’s no point in continuing this anymore”?
To you, who are facing such an urgent crisis of the heart, let me share a story that will act as a powerful shot in the arm. It is the story of Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of the Toyota Group and a man called Japan’s King of Inventors.
Sakichi was treated by those around him as an “eccentric,” a “weirdo,” and at times, a “madman.”
This was because he was a quiet person who paid absolutely no attention to the rumors of others, and spent his days “invention-crazy,” making something and breaking it, creating it and recreating it again from morning until night every single day.
His driving force was only one pure and powerful passion: “I want to ease the weaving work and the lives of my mother and everyone else with my inventions.”
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” — Winston Churchill
True to these words, Sakichi continued to move his hands on-site longer and harder than anyone else.
Aoki Mokubei was exactly the same. It is said that he repeated failures time and again to produce his ideal colors, smashing thousands of vessels to pieces.
What is the lesson you should learn from their way of life?
It is that “you must not let initial failures or surrounding noise interfere with your precious life.”
Just as the founder of Choya Umeshu possessed such tremendous resolve as to say, “If you don’t succeed with plum liqueur, give up on life,” you must concentrate on the work you are currently handling without looking away.
The tenacity and patience of daily life, like stacking bricks one by one, is the only key that will lead your tomorrow’s career to 100% certain success.
If It Isn’t Communicated, It’s the Same as Not Existing? The Ultimate Secret to Delivering Valuable Things, Revealed by Sony Founder Akio Morita
Have you ever been confronted with the cruel reality that no matter how wonderful your technology is or how kind your heart is, if it isn’t communicated to others, it becomes the same as not existing in this world?
Here, please carefully read the eye-opening and famous quote by Akio Morita, the founder of Sony, which strikes at the essence of business.
“Even if such a thing has never been produced before and no one has ever seen it, a product that has been painstakingly researched and manufactured with great hardship in some corner… if you want to turn that product into a commodity, you must arouse a desire among people to possess it. No matter how excellent a ‘product’ it may be, it cannot become a ‘commodity’ unless you do so.” — Akio Morita
These words apply perfectly not only to business but also to your personal relationships and self-expression.
No matter how wonderful the vessels Aoki Mokubei created were, if he had not made the effort to deliver them to the people who would love them, their value would have been buried in history.
To firmly “communicate” good things to the other person’s heart.
For that purpose, desperate communication that stands in the other person’s shoes and directly appeals to their psychology is indispensable.
When you want to get your opinion across at work, or when you want to deliver your feelings to someone you like, nothing will start if you just wait.
Make an effort to spark a desire in their heart so they think, “I want to get that, I want to hear that story.”
Just by incorporating this wisdom of Mr. Morita into your daily life, the persuasiveness of your words will jump dramatically, and you will surely feel the people around you becoming your fans.
Why Did Steve Jobs Care So Abnormally About “Quality”? The Reason Your Choices Decide Your Future
What kind of criteria do you usually use when making a purchase or choosing the outcome of your work?
“It’s cheap, so this will do,” or “It’s easy, so I’ll just settle for this.”
If you are repeating only those kinds of choices, you need to be careful.
Because the quality of the things surrounding you in your daily life risks lowering the caliber of your own life.
Here, let us touch upon the legendary philosophy of Steve Jobs, the revolutionary of the digital age.
“Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten.” — Steve Jobs
The beauty of Apple products and their obsession with overwhelming quality were born from this belief of Jobs.
No matter what excellent marketing you use, if the content is a “piece of junk,” it can never be made to last.
Why is it that Aoki Mokubei’s works still hold national treasure-level value even now, 200 years later, and continue to shake our hearts?
It is because he never compromised on quality for the sake of price or efficiency.
This is exactly why you should familiarize yourself with truly first-class things and genuine art in your daily life.
By touching the genuine article, your own inner “standard of quality” is raised.
As your standards rise, the quality of your work will also increase, and the aura you project will become more refined.
Why not stop settling for cheap, compromised items right now, and bring “genuine quality” that will be remembered forever into your life?
Hints for Returning from the Brink of Despair! The Unyielding Wisdom Taught by Ancestors from All Times and Places to Overcome Adversity
In life, times of deep despair and hardship that cannot be helped by your own power will inevitably visit.
When that happens, do you just sit and wait for death, or do you crawl back up?
Lastly, I will ignite your soul and deliver the unyielding wisdom to surely resurrect from any adversity, along with the famous quotes of the world’s great figures.
“There is no life within life; there is life within death.” — Japanese Idiom
This means that a true new life and a dazzling power to live spring forth precisely from a frantic, borderline situation.
Just as Aoki Mokubei exploded his greatest art within the darkness where he lost his hearing, the very place where you think “it’s all over” right now is the power spot where the greatest energy is born.
“We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” — Apostle Paul
“God’s grace works most powerfully when we are at our weakest.” — Jean Calvin
“He who knows does not speak; he who speaks does not know. If you know contentment, you will suffer no disgrace; if you know when to stop, you will meet no danger.” — Laozi
All of these words are a powerful cheer for you.
In the long course of history, countless ancestors who worried, suffered, and overcame just like you are backing you up.
You are never alone.
Through art, let us connect with their unyielding spirit and reborn your life into something newer and more wonderful.
For your future is filled with an astonishing radiance.
Postscript: A Sincere Message Dedicated to You from Painter Mimi Takamizawa
Thank you so much for reading this far.
Lastly, please let me talk a little bit about myself, the author of this text, the painter “Mimi Takamizawa (高見沢 耳).”
I do not use traditional canvases or brushes at all.
I use the latest digital technology to draw pictures on a screen, and then breathe life into them on top-quality printmaking paper using an advanced printing technique called the “giclée print method.”
My production themes, while inheriting the spirit of Aoki Mokubei into the modern era, touch upon the roots of the human soul: “your eyes and my eyes,” “Christianity,” “eternity,” “psychology,” “truth,” “gaze,” “history,” “loneliness,” “isolation,” “hardship,” “resurrection,” and “liberation.”
Do you know that you are living while holding a little bit of loneliness?
Mimi Takamizawa’s work was created precisely to comfort your heart.
It is art meant to heal your heart.
I believe that the job of a painter should be, so to speak, a “doctor who saves souls.”
An artist’s work is the ultimate service and devotion offered to you by shaving away their own life and spending their own money.
I want to dedicate all of myself to you right in front of me.
Please do not abandon my clumsy way of living.
Rather, please laugh at me.
I am a man of patience, an unyielding man who gets laughed at, gets knocked down, and yet grows stronger. I will absolutely never give up.
The reason I decided to become a painter was because I learned about the tremendous life of Vincent van Gogh.
The name “Mimi” (meaning ear in Japanese) in “Mimi Takamizawa” was taken after that famous ear-mutilation incident of Van Gogh as a lifelong resolution.
Van Gogh left this wonderful quote in one of his letters:
“I want to express something comforting in a picture, like music.” — Vincent van Gogh
I think that is absolutely true.
A work or a job that expresses something yet cannot inspire anyone’s heart, or cannot comfort the heart of you right in front of me, has no value whatsoever.
I know that all the historical masterpieces of the past were not painted by inborn genius alone, but were created through decades of blood-soaked trial and error.
That is why I keep drawing “eyes” persistently in my works.
Because by drawing eyes in the paintings, I want to keep feeling your existence on the other side of the screen with my own skin.
I want to know you, right in front of me, much more deeply.
I deeply respect Tokuji Munetsugu, the founder of Curry House CoCo Ichibanya.
He was the ultimate single-minded man who devoted all his strength to his work without looking away even once.
“This is no time to be enjoying hobbies.”
It was classical music that saved Mr. Munetsugu during his unfortunate boyhood, but it is said that during the era when he was active as a manager, he did not listen to his beloved classical music for even a single second.
To that extent, he entirely devoted all of his time to serving his customers.
During the initial coffee shop era that was the predecessor to CoCo Ichibanya, absolutely no customers came at first, and the Munetsugus survived their lunches by eating the “crusts of white bread” left over from the sandwiches.
However, he believed that “since we started from zero, that’s only natural. Rather, it’s a good memory. If we stick to putting the customer first, things will surely get better,” and he continued to work every single day, concentrating like stacking bricks.
Immediate decision, immediate conclusion, immediate execution.
Devoting life to work, devoting all of my life to you right in front of me.
Mr. Munetsugu looked back on his retirement like this:
“During my active years, I had no hobbies and made no friends. I have never even been to a bar. I did nothing that would get in the way of my work. There were times when I worked 5,640 hours a year. This was because I thought my subordinates wouldn’t work unless I led by example. It was a very lonely life. That’s why I wanted others to show even a little bit of interest in me. I wanted them to be interested in me. That has become my starting point. Therefore, rather than starting a business to make money, I wanted to please people. I wanted them to say they were glad I was around, even if just a little.” — Tokuji Munetsugu
Mr. Munetsugu does not know the faces of his real parents.
He entered an orphanage immediately after birth, and even after being adopted, he spent a childhood of extreme poverty due to his adoptive father’s gambling addiction.
In his boyhood, he had nothing to eat, so he staved off hunger by eating wild grass in the summer—truly a life of many ups and downs.
Such a man made working 12 or more hours a day the bare minimum requirement and carried through his “you-first principle.”
It is said that when a customer came to the shop, he welcomed them with a round of applause in his heart.
Valuable things are often things that do not have immediate efficacy.
It doesn’t go well from the very beginning.
Rather than thinking, try doing it first. Please do not give up easily.
What kind of life it turns out to be is decided by that human being’s diligence, patience, and continuity.
I, too, like Mr. Munetsugu and Aoki Mokubei, will continue to paint while dedicating all of my life for you.
Here, I offer you that most beautiful word of my beloved Henry Ford.
“Most people think of success as a obtaining. But the truth is, success is a giving.” — Henry Ford
After Van Gogh passed away, his works were spread to the world through the desperate efforts of his brother Theo, and Theo’s wife, Jo.
Jo left these words:
“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.” — Jo van Gogh-Bonger
My work, too, can harbor its true life for the first time only by being discovered and loved by a precious existence like you.
Lastly, let me close this long letter with three powerful quotes from the King of Inventors, Edison, which will support your life from now on.
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
“The secret of my success is to continue even after others have given up.” — Thomas Edison
I hope that the small amount of loneliness you hold transforms into a warm sense of security by meeting the “eyes” I draw.
I am always watching you, and I am here for you.