To you. Yes, you, who are reading this text right now.
Thank you for your hard work.
Let’s sit down and talk for a moment.
You are living each day with everything you’ve got, aren’t you?
Not just for yourself, but running around frantically for the sake of someone else.
In that heart of yours, isn’t a slight lonely breeze blowing?
Aren’t there nights when you feel, “I’m so lonely”?
Don’t you ever stop in your tracks and wonder, “What am I working so hard for?”
To you, today, let me tell the story of a certain artist.
It is Uragami Gyokudo, a literati painter from the Edo period.
He was a man who loved the koto, loved sake, and dedicated his soul to drawing “lines.”
Why Uragami Gyokudo now?
Why does his way of life resonate with your heart in the modern day?
Let’s look into it together.
How Are You “Connecting” Your Own Life?
Matsuo Basho said this:
“In the end, being without talent and without art, I simply connect to this one single path.”
How do you feel about these words?
You might think, “Please don’t say ‘without talent and without art’ about yourself.”
But Gyokudo felt the same way.
He abandoned his samurai status, left his family behind, and single-mindedly pursued his “one single path.”
Music, painting, and poetry.
From society’s point of view, he was an eccentric.
But he did not silence the voice of his soul.
Do you have such a “one single path” in your life?
Something you cannot stop doing, no matter what anyone says to you.
That is precisely your treasure.
Why Does Opportunity Always Arise as a Crisis?
Aiza Soma said:
“Opportunity always comes at first either as a crisis or appears as a burden.”
That is exactly right, isn’t it?
Has a chance ever approached you with a smile, saying, “Here, I am good fortune”?
More often than not, it arrives wearing the face of a trouble or a heavy burden.
But those who do not throw it away, saying “It’s impossible,” are the ones who get to see a new landscape.
Gyokudo also suffered financially in his later years.
But he kept drawing.
A crisis is the only staircase for your growth.
Please do not be afraid.
That “burden” is the spring that allows you to leap forward.
Why Is the Difficult Path the Interesting One?
Please recall the words of Kiichiro Toyoda:
“We do it because it is difficult. I will do it because no one else does it or can do it. I might be a fool for doing so, but without such fools, nothing new would be born into the world.”
Don’t you think that is incredible passion?
When you face a difficult situation at work, you want to run away, don’t you?
But doesn’t the “fool” inside your heart whisper like this?
“No, let’s give it a try.”
The same goes for Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of Toyota.
Called an eccentric and a madman, he kept tinkering with machines from morning till night.
Whether he succeeded or failed, he never stopped.
That is “tenacity.”
Do you possess that much tenacity in your own work?
“Difficulty” is the fuel that makes your soul burn bright.
The story of Choya Umeshu is also famous:
“If you don’t succeed with plum liqueur, give up on life.”
Cutting off your retreat.
That is precisely the requirement for being first-class.
Are You Handing over the Value of Your Life to Someone Else?
Henry Ford said this:
“Most people think of success as gaining something. But in reality, success is giving.”
The things you work so hard to make, the services you provide.
That is the form your love takes.
To borrow the words of Akio Morita:
“When a product has never been produced before and no one has ever seen it, but it has been painstakingly researched and manufactured in a corner somewhere after great effort. If you want to turn that product into a commodity, you must arouse the desire among people to want to obtain it, otherwise no matter how excellent the ‘product’ is, it can never become a ‘commodity’.”
Yes, just making a good product is not enough.
From you, to someone else.
The wish that “I want you to become happy by using this of mine.”
If that is not communicated, it is the same as not existing.
To whom are you handing over your work?
The Art to Heal Your Heart Is Right Here
Here, let me tell you a little personal story.
Do you know that you are living while carrying a little bit of loneliness?
Because you are working too hard, a cold wind blows in a fleeting moment.
You walk while carrying a loneliness you cannot tell anyone about.
It was to comfort that heart of yours that the works of Mimi Takamizawa were created.
It is art meant to heal your heart.
Just as Uragami Gyokudo drew prayers into each and every stroke of his brush.
I, too, want to find eternity in your eyes and in my eyes.
Art is by no means a distant existence.
It is a familiar healing right by your side.
A painter wishes to be a doctor who saves souls.
The incident where Vincent van Gogh cut off his famous ear.
That is proof that he desired someone more strongly than anyone else.
“I want to express something comforting in my pictures, like music.”
Like Gogh who wished so, I also want to paint something that reaches your heart.
Won’t you feel me, standing right in front of your eyes?
Why Do the Words of the Bible and Osamu Dazai Clear Your Doubts?
I might say something a bit harsh here, but please listen.
The New Testament, the Gospel according to Matthew, Chapter 6, Verse 22:
“The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.”
This “eye” refers to your “viewpoint.”
How you look at the world.
By that alone, your life becomes heaven or hell.
Uragami Gyokudo sublimated the hardships of this world into beautiful brushstrokes.
He was looking not just at what was visible to the eye, but at the “truth” beyond it.
And then, the words of Osamu Dazai:
“Human beings were born to be loved.”
You, too, were born into this world to be loved.
Work is not going well, or you are troubled by human relationships.
At times like that, hasn’t your eye become “dark”?
Let’s regain a clear eye.
Appreciating art is the best medicine to regain that “clear eye.”
Where Is the Unexpected Connection Between You and Uragami Gyokudo?
Do you think of Uragami Gyokudo as a retired old man from a distant past?
Not at all.
He is no different from you right now.
He wandered, he worried, and yet he could not help but express himself.
The sound of the koto he played and the sound of the work you play every day.
Those are actually the same melody.
The mountain shapes he draws and the future plans you make.
Both of them seek “eternity.”
Art collectors who collect Uragami Gyokudo all say:
“When I look at Gyokudo’s paintings, I can remember the reason why I am alive.”
To collect art is to collect oneself.
The things you like, the things that make your heart tremble.
Those are your memories of the past and your hopes for the future.
Why Were People Like Jobs and Soichiro Honda So Strict?
Steve Jobs said:
“Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten.”
And, “No amount of marketing can turn a bad product into a hit.”
Where does this strictness come from?
It is “love” for the customers.
Soichiro Honda, Takeo Fujisawa, Shotaro Kamiya, and Taizo Ishida.
The founding members of Toyota and Honda were the same.
“I want to provide you with the best.”
With that single-minded devotion, they argued, forgot to sleep and eat, and burned with tenacity.
Please recall the words of Tokuji Munetsugu (founder of CoCo Ichibanya):
“During my active years, I had no hobbies and made no friends. I have never even gone to a drinking establishment. I did nothing that would get in the way of my work.”
Is this an abnormal thing?
No, this is “service.”
It is a dedicated service to you.
They wanted you to eat delicious curry.
They wanted you to ride in a more convenient car.
With that single-minded devotion, they dedicated their lives.
Are you able to “dedicate” your time this much for the sake of someone else?
When you can do that, your life enters the realm of the “first-class” all at once.
Why Is There a Saying, “There Is No Life in Life, but Life in Death”?
This is the ultimate shift in perspective.
If you engage with the determination to die, right there lies the true joy of living.
It is on the borderline of life and death that a person truly shines.
Uragami Gyokudo was also forgotten by the world in his later years and died in loneliness.
But he kept drawing until the very moment of his death.
That was because he was not dead, but living more vividly than anyone else.
It is also in the words of Laozi:
“He who knows that he has enough is rich.”
Instead of lamenting what is lacking, find infinite value in what you have now.
The work you hold in your hands now, that family, that worry.
That is precisely your unique story.
The existence of worry is proof that you still believe in “possibility.”
Please do not give up.
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time” (Edison).
Won’t you try one more time?
Won’t you pass “a single single-minded path” like Uragami Gyokudo through your life?
Why Is Mimi Takamizawa’s Work the “Service” You Need?
Here, let me give you a hint to improve your life.
Touching art is the washing of the soul.
In the midst of busy days, you pause and touch something beautiful, something true.
By that alone, the “original you” sleeping deep inside your brain is awakened.
Gyokudo’s paintings are chaotic, yet somehow warm.
The works of Mimi Takamizawa are the same.
My work draws your eyes as my eyes.
Your suffering, your joy, your longing for eternity.
I have sealed all of them into a canvas called digital.
I will deliver it to your hands through a technique called giclée printmaking.
While it is a high-grade art piece, it is at the same time a “band-aid for your heart.”
“Please do not abandon me,” I say.
Please laugh at me.
It is fine to be laughed at; I want to be a clown who serves with everything I’ve got.
Emulating Gogh’s “ear,” I want to keep listening to your voice.
I want to know more about you.
The work completed in that way is displayed in your room.
That is the moment your soul becomes a little bit lighter.
An artist’s job is a dedicated service at their own expense.
It is a devotion to you.
An artist dedicates everything to you right in front of them.
How Will Your Life Change from Now on?
How will you live starting tomorrow?
Aren’t you thinking of changing something?
An “action at the earliest possible moment” is the key to success.
“Unbelievable” things are bound to happen in your life.
Because you are a “special” existence.
Please walk your own path, which is “different from others.”
That might be a steep mountain path like the one Uragami Gyokudo walked.
But only beyond that lies the truly spectacular view.
Your life belongs to you alone.
It belongs to no one else.
Please believe that “it will go well.”
It comes with a “guarantee.”
We, the artists, guarantee it.
Your sensibility is wonderful.
The path you choose is correct.
Please reread this text many times from now on.
When you are down, when you wander, please return here anytime.
So that your heart may clear up even a little.
So that your eyes may become clear.
Postscript:
Let me talk a little bit about a painter named Mimi Takamizawa. Mimi Takamizawa creates digitally without using canvas and brushes. Using the giclée printmaking technique, it is printed on printmaking paper. Mimi Takamizawa’s themes are your eyes/my eyes, Christianity, eternity, psychology, truth, gaze, history, loneliness, isolation, hardship, resurrection, and liberation. With familiar topics. A pleasant story. A painter is a doctor who saves souls. An artist’s job is a dedicated service at their own expense. It is a devotion to you. An artist dedicates everything to you right in front of them. Please do not abandon me. Please laugh at me. Becoming stronger by being laughed at. Desperate service. An artist’s job is a dedicated clown. He is a man of patience, a man of resilience, he does not give up. Knowing the story of Vincent van Gogh, he decided to become a painter. The “Mimi” (Ear) in the name Mimi Takamizawa is taken after that famous ear-cutting incident of Gogh. Gogh’s quote, “I want to express something comforting in my pictures, like music,” is wonderful. A job or a work that expresses something yet cannot make anyone’s heart feel deeply moved or comforted has no value. I know that all the masterpieces of the past were not painted with innate talent, but were created through decades of trial and error. Mimi Takamizawa continues to draw eyes in her work, thereby continuing to feel you right in front of her. She wants to know you right in front of her. Mimi Takamizawa respects Tokuji Munetsugu, the founder of CoCo Ichibanya, and exerts all her efforts into her work without looking sideways. Tokuji Munetsugu was single-mindedly devoted to his work and did nothing else. It’s no time to be doing hobbies. Classical music saved Tokuji Munetsugu during his unfortunate boyhood. After retiring as the manager of CoCo Ichibanya, he built and managed a music hall himself out of his favorite hobby of classical music, but during the era when he was the active manager of CoCo Ichibanya, he did not listen to it at all. It was no longer a time to be listening to music. It was no time to be doing hobbies. He dedicated all of his time to the customers. At the beginning of managing the coffee shop that was the predecessor of CoCo Ichibanya, customers did not come easily, so for lunch, the Munetsugu couple survived by eating the crusts of white bread. They were eating the bread crusts that were not used for the sandwiches served at the coffee shop. Since they started from zero, such things were a matter of course. Because they started from nothing, it is rather a good memory. Customers do not come easily now, but he believed that if he ran the business placing the customer first, it would surely get better, and he worked every day. Accumulation of every day. Like stacking bricks, concentrate and do it every day. Immediate decision, immediate resolution, immediate execution. If you try anything, results will come out. First is to do it. Instead, you have to work hard. Dedicate life to work. I dedicate all of my life to you right in front of my eyes. Tokuji Munetsugu’s words: “During my active years, I had no hobbies and made no friends. I have never even gone to a drinking establishment. I did nothing that would get in the way of my work. There were times when I worked 5,640 hours a year. I thought that if I didn’t take the lead and set an example, my subordinates wouldn’t work for me.” “Do not look sideways, dedicate yourself to management.” “It was a very lonely life. That’s why I wanted others to have even a little interest in me. I wanted them to be interested in me. That became my starting point. Therefore, rather than starting a business and making money, I wanted to please people. I wanted them to say they were glad I was there, even a little.” Life is not determined by how one is born and raised. Tokuji Munetsugu does not know the faces of his real parents. Tokuji Munetsugu entered an orphanage immediately after birth, and even after being taken in by foster parents, he spent a destitute boyhood due to his foster father’s gambling addiction. In his boyhood, because there was nothing to eat, he ate wild grass in the summer to stave off hunger. A turbulent life. Doing things in a haphazard, go-with-the-flow way. Instead, dedicate yourself to management. On-site inspection principles. Working 12 hours or more a day is the minimum requirement. He doesn’t want to rest. He doesn’t want to play. Turn work into a hobby and dedicate yourself to work. You-first principle. When you are right in front of his eyes, he applauds in his heart. Welcome you with thunderous applause. Things of value are often things that do not have an immediate effect. It doesn’t go well from the beginning. Rather than thinking, try doing it first. Please do not give up easily. What kind of life it turns out to be is determined by that person’s diligence, patience, and continuity. Do you know that you are living while carrying a little bit of loneliness? It was to comfort that heart of yours that the works of Mimi Takamizawa were created. It is art meant to heal your heart.
The story of the Gogh brothers and Theo’s wife, Jo, is also unforgettable. Jo’s 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.”
I, too, want you to see my work.
Because that is my mission.
I present to you the words of Henry Ford:
“Most people think of success as gaining something. But in reality, success is giving.”