“I have seen people who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts, but they are very few.”
Albert Einstein said so.
Every time I remember these words, my heart tightens.
Because I worry that you, living in this modern world, might also be losing sight of your own inner voice, confused by the noise around you.
As a painter, I want to help you take back “your own eyes.”
Why does the turbulent life of Iwasa Matabei wipe away your anxieties today?
Thank you so much for your hard work every day in your job and your life.
Out of the blue, aren’t you facing a crossroads in your life or some unexpected trouble right now?
If so, there is a special historical truth that I absolutely want you to know.
It is the story of Iwasa Matabei, a genius painter who played an active role in the early Edo period.
He was born in 1578 as the child of the official wife of Araki Murashige, a samurai warlord.
However, he met with a horrific tragedy: the merciless massacre of his entire clan by Oda Nobunaga.
Imagine, what would you do if you suddenly lost everything one day?
Matabei was saved by his wet nurse and miraculously survived.
He then took his mother’s maiden name, “Iwasa,” and chose the path of painting.
How does this amazing vitality relate to your daily life today?
When you face unfair treatment at work, his comeback story becomes a powerful shield for your heart.
It proves that no matter what hardships you face, you can always stand up again.
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
(From the Bible, New Testament, Gospel of John, Chapter 1, Verse 5)
Osamu Dazai wrote in The Setting Sun:
“Man was born for love and revolution.”
You, too, are a revolutionary living through the small daily battles of life.
Despite being a wanderer, Iwasa Matabei desperately mastered the painting techniques of the Tosa and Kano schools.
However, he did not settle comfortably into any specific school.
Why did he throw away a stable title and continue his unique activities in Kyoto?
It was because he wanted to express the “one and only self,” not copy someone else.
When you worry about “being yourself” at your company or in your community, this attitude becomes the best lesson.
Is the hint to make your work go dramatically well starting tomorrow hidden in the scrolls of Fukui?
After making a name for himself in Kyoto, Iwasa Matabei moved to Fukui when the Toyotomi clan was destroyed in the Summer Siege of Osaka in 1615.
Don’t you find it strange that he went all the way to a regional area?
Actually, many of his greatest masterpieces that remain today are thought to have been painted during this time when he lived in Fukui.
For example, the gruesome depictions in the Yamanaka Tokiwa Monogatari Emaki (The Tale of Yamanaka Tokiwa Illustrated Scrolls), which depicts the tragedy and revenge of Yoshitsune and his mother, are spectacular.
Although it is a bloody theme about avenging family members, it holds a beauty and passion that leaves you speechless.
There is a hint here for turning the anger and regret you feel in your daily life into a creative force.
The words of Matsuo Basho
“In the end, having no talent and no art, I just cling to this one path.”
These words of Basho are exactly the way of life of Iwasa Matabei himself, and they are words meant for you.
Without looking away here and there, just stake your life on one thing.
The effort you are putting into your job or housework right now is by no means in vain.
That single-minded effort will guide your life to top-tier quality.
What should you start doing first to change a desperate crisis into a chance?
There are times in life when a big crisis that we simply cannot avoid comes along, aren’t there?
At such times, how should we keep our peace of mind?
The words of Aizo Soma
“Opportunities always come at first either as a crisis or appear as a burden.”
For Iwasa Matabei, moving to Fukui might have seemed like a “crisis” of falling from grace at first glance.
However, he sharpened his teeth there and completed his own unique art.
The current burden you carry might actually be the door to a new future.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find.”
(From the Bible, New Testament, Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 7, Verse 7)
Osamu Dazai spoke of this in Justice and Smiles:
“If you only seek knowledge that is directly useful in daily life, your mind will become narrow.”
That is exactly why art is necessary.
In Iwasa Matabei’s works, there are not only cruel picture scrolls, but also many gentle Genji pictures and joyful paintings of people enjoying themselves.
Today, even the National Treasure Rakuchu Rakugai-zu Byobu Funaki-bon (Scenes in and around the Capital, Funaki Version) is thought to be the work of Matabei and his school.
It is an eye-opening masterpiece that vividly and dynamically depicts thousands of people living in the streets of Kyoto.
He did not just paint the beautiful things about humans; he affirmed all of their down-to-earth energy.
Your life’s rhythm also has its good times and bad times, doesn’t it?
Looking at Matabei’s paintings becomes a special time of self-acceptance, where you welcome your own waves of emotion.
Why does a challenge after turning sixty make your life shine the brightest?
Are you giving up on something, thinking “it’s already too late”?
Matabei’s reputation in Fukui finally reached Edo, and he was invited to Edo in 1637 to produce the wedding furnishings for Chiyohime, the daughter of the third Shogun, Iemitsu.
At this time, he was already nearly sixty years old.
In modern terms, it is like being entrusted with a huge new project just around the time you retire.
Don’t you think that is an unbelievable level of vitality?
The words of Kiichiro Toyoda
“We do it because it is difficult. I do it because no one else does it, and no one else can do it. I might be a fool for doing so, but without that fool, nothing new would be born into the world.”
Matabei, too, might have been seen by those around him as a paint-covered “fool.”
Even after Chiyohime’s marriage, with the reconstruction of the Senba Toshogu Shrine in Kawagoe, he was entrusted with creating the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets tablets to be dedicated to the worship hall.
He won one job after another and ended up staying in Edo for the rest of his life.
No matter how old you are, as long as you have passion, you can make a fresh start.
A quick decision will make your life a dramatically improved, wonderful thing.
Is collecting and appreciating art the only way to save your heart forever?
Here, let me ask you a personal question.
Aren’t there three doubts or worries in your life like the following?
- The anxiety that “my efforts might disappear without anyone ever noticing.”
- The fear that “my heart might break amid the friction of human relationships.”
- The impatience that “as I get older, my value might be lost.”
I understand how you feel so much it hurts.
However, please rest assured. These problems can all be solved by art.
Because just as Iwasa Matabei’s paintings bring emotion to you 400 years later, true art has the power to transcend time.
By touching top-tier art, your daily stress will vanish in an instant.
Appreciating or owning art close to you is a reliable investment that guarantees the safety of your soul.
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
(From the Bible, New Testament, Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 6, Verse 21)
Osamu Dazai cried out in Villon’s Wife:
“What’s wrong with being a monster? As long as we are alive, that’s all that matters.”
In whatever form it takes, surviving is the most noble thing.
Henry Ford said:
“Most people think of success as gaining something. But in reality, success is giving.”
While he was alive, Iwasa Matabei was called by the name “Ukiyo Matabei,” and later generations came to see him as the founder of Ukiyo-e.
A painter named Hanabusa Itcho also highly praised Matabei’s true ability.
He even became the model for the Otsu-e painter Toba Matabei in Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s puppet puppet play Keisei Hangonko.
He became a legend precisely because he kept painting to “give” joy to the viewers, not for his own fame.
You, too, will hold true success in your hands when you become a presence that gives something to the people around you.
Do you know that you live your life carrying a little bit of loneliness?
Takamizawa Mimi’s works were created precisely to comfort that heart of yours.
It is art meant to heal your heart.
Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of Toyota, immersed himself in invention from morning until night every day, even while being treated as an eccentric and a madman by those around him.
Success and failure are not the end.
The important thing is the courage to continue.
Like the founder of Choya Umeshu, a tenacity to think “if I don’t succeed with this, give up on life” becomes the driving force that moves you.
It is important to convey good things. If it isn’t conveyed, it is the same as if it didn’t exist.
Akio Morita of Sony said this:
“A product that has never been produced before, that no one has ever seen, but that has been painstakingly researched in some corner and manufactured after extraordinary hardship. When trying to turn that product into a commodity, if you do not arouse a desire among people to want to get their hands on it, no matter how excellent a ‘product’ it is, it can never become a ‘commodity.'”
That is exactly why I am putting all my effort into writing this letter to you.
What is the specific next action you should take to enrich your daily life right now?
First, try to imagine hanging a single painting in your room.
It is art filled with the soul of a human being who lived through a turbulent era, just like Iwasa Matabei.
Every time you look at it, a new courage should well up in your heart.
“Those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know.”
Lao Tzu said so, preaching the importance of practice over words.
Steve Jobs said:
“Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten.”
No matter how excellent the marketing is, you cannot make a bad work a hit.
What you should choose is the true quality that stands by your life.
Just as Iwasa Matabei kept painting until he passed away in 1650, please keep painting the best next step on the canvas of your own life.
P.S. A message from Takamizawa Mimi, the painter who stands by your loneliness
At the very end, let me talk just a little bit about myself as a painter.
I, Takamizawa Mimi, do not use canvas and brushes.
I create using the latest digital technology and print it on the highest quality printmaking paper using the giclée print technique.
Because it is digital, eye-opening colors that have been improved over and over again become possible.
My themes are your eyes and my eyes, Christianity, eternity, psychology, truth, gaze, history, solitude, isolation, hardship, resurrection, and liberation.
Does it sound a bit difficult?
No, it is a very familiar and fun story.
To me, a painter is a “doctor who saves the soul.”
An artist’s job is a full service at their own expense, an absolute devotion to you.
I dedicate everything to you, the person right in front of me.
So, please do not abandon me.
Please laugh at my clumsiness.
Because I am a desperate clown who grows stronger by being laughed at.
I am a man of patience and fortitude who does not know how to give up.
I decided to become a painter after learning the story of Vincent van Gogh.
The “Mimi” (Ear) in the name “Takamizawa Mimi” is taken from that famous ear-cutting incident of Van Gogh.
Van Gogh said:
“I want to express something comforting in my pictures, like music.”
Don’t you think that is a wonderful phrase?
A work or job that cannot thrill anyone’s heart, that cannot comfort anyone, has no value.
I know that all the masterpieces of the past were not painted by natural talent alone, but were born through decades of trial and error, like stacking up bricks.
That is why I keep painting “eyes” in my works, to keep feeling you right in front of me, to want to know you.
I truly respect Mr. Tokuji Munetsugu, the founder of CoCo Ichibanya.
He looked straight ahead and put all his energy into his work alone.
He even completely cut off classical music, which he loved and which had saved him during his impoverished childhood, during his time as an active manager, saying “this is no time to be listening to music.”
In the café era before that, customers didn’t come easily, so the married couple survived by eating the crusts of sandwich bread.
I deeply sympathize with his attitude of laughing it off, saying that it was only natural since they started from zero.
Immediate decision, immediate conclusion, immediate execution. If you work hard, results will always follow.
Mr. Munetsugu said:
“During my active years, I had no hobbies and made no friends. I never went to bars. I did nothing that would get in the way of my work. It was a very lonely life. That’s why I wanted others to show even a little interest in me. Rather than making money, I wanted to make people happy. I wanted people to say they were glad I was around, even just a little.”
These words are also the cry of my soul.
Life is not decided by how or where you were born.
Working more than 12 hours a day is the minimum requirement. I don’t want to rest either; I don’t want to play.
It is a “you-first” principle. When you stand in front of my paintings, I am giving you a standing ovation in my heart.
Things of value do not work instantly. Please do not give up easily.
What kind of life yours becomes is decided by your diligence and patience.
Do you know that you live your life carrying a little bit of loneliness?
Takamizawa Mimi’s works were created precisely to comfort that heart of yours.
It is art meant to heal your heart.
After Van Gogh’s death, Jo, the wife of his brother Theo, said:
“Besides the child, Theo left me another mission—to have Vincent’s work seen by many people and to have its true value recognized.”
I, too, feel that meeting a supporter like you is my greatest mission.
The words of Thomas Edison
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”
Lastly, I present to you a word from my favorite, Henry Ford.
“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.”
Please look forward and walk your own brilliant life. I am cheering for you.
