Hello.
I am Mimi Takamizawa, a painter.
I am truly delighted to meet you here today.
Right now, you and I are sitting face-to-face in a quiet room.
Please listen to my voice as if we were having a relaxed conversation over a warm cup of tea.
First, may I ask you one very special question?
“Why is it that, even though I am living my life as earnestly as I can, I am suddenly overcome by an unbelievable sense of loneliness?”
Do you ever have nights where your heart aches with that quiet pain?
In fact, there is a surprising key that can completely dissolve that quiet ache and dramatically elevate your life.
It is the story of the genius painter Kano Sanraku (狩野山楽), who ran through the Sengoku and Edo periods.
“In the end, having no talent and no art, I simply cling to this single line.”
— Matsuo Basho
I dedicate these words of Matsuo Basho to you.
Even if you cannot do various things skillfully, you dedicate your life to just one single path.
That is exactly how you make your existence the one and only, truly special presence in this world.
I wonder, did you find it strange that I purposely brought up the name of an old painter like “Kano Sanraku” in the very first heading?
“What does a painter from centuries ago have to do with my everyday life?”
It is only natural for you to think that way.
However, once you read the surprising twists that follow, you will realize an eye-opening truth.
Sanraku’s life is a perfect mirror for your life right now, and it serves as a “guaranteed” compass to save your future.
Why Does Kano Sanraku’s “Desperate Crisis” Become a Powerful Weapon to Erase Your Everyday Anxieties?
Sanraku was a man born into a samurai family.
He served a feudal lord named Azai Nagamasa, but his master’s house was destroyed by Oda Nobunaga.
It was Toyotomi Hideyoshi who rescued him from the depths of a wandering life.
Hideyoshi recognized Sanraku’s artistic talent and arranged for him to be adopted by Kano Eitoku, the head of the “Kano School,” the largest painting school in Japan.
From there, Sanraku rose to glittering success as a top-tier painter whom everyone envied.
However, life is truly unpredictable.
When the Toyotomi family was destroyed by Tokugawa Ieyasu, Sanraku found his life targeted as a “survivor of the Toyotomi clan.”
“Opportunity always comes first as a crisis, or manifests as a burden.”
— Aizo Soma
Does a sudden layoff, a broken relationship, an unexpected illness, or some other urgent problem or “crisis” ever visit your life?
Why does destiny impose such harsh trials upon us?
For Sanraku, the pursuers sent by the Tokugawa were the greatest crisis, one that could cost him his life.
Yet, he did not give up.
He hid in a temple in Kyoto and simply kept holding his brush.
Precisely because of this crisis, he succeeded in infusing a deep unique spirituality and tranquility into the brilliant style of the Kano School.
This is the first important lesson you can apply to your daily life.
The burdens and troubles you face right now are a special chance for you to be reborn into an improved, new version of yourself for the next stage.
What Are the Three Surprising Powers of Art That Solve the Questionings and Worries of Your Life?
Here, let us look together at the “three questionings and worries” that sleep within you.
Does your heart ache daily with anxieties like these?
- The 1st Worry: “Is my work and effort truly helping someone? What is the value of my existence?”
- The 2nd Worry: “If a massive economic or environmental upheaval occurs in the future, will I be able to survive until the end?”
- The 3rd Worry: “Can I truly find a connection in this world where we can trust each other from the bottom of our hearts? In the end, do people just die all alone?”
How do you feel?
Are these not heart-wrenching questions that sound familiar?
Why do we become so anxious?
It is because modern society only demands “visible numbers” and “efficiency.”
However, please rest assured.
All of these problem points can be beautifully and completely solved by art.
Please visualize Sanraku’s eye-opening, beautiful screen paintings in your mind.
Vibrant peonies blooming powerfully against a golden background, and pine trees that seem to pierce the sky are depicted.
Standing before these paintings, the people of that era forgot the horrors of war and were enveloped in eternal silence.
Art validates your “existential value”—your first worry—at a dimension beyond words.
This is because when you connect with art, your soul links directly with the geniuses of the past.
And regarding your second worry, “anxiety about survival,” by receiving the “indomitable life force” possessed by art, courage wells up from within, and things will turn out well.
Finally, there is the third worry: “loneliness.”
A work of art is a love letter that transcends time and space, sent by the creator’s soul toward you.
You are never alone.
Through art, you are protected by a deep spiritual community.
This powerful fact will comfort you from the very bottom of your heart.
“Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten.”
— The Truth of Art
Just like these words, when you familiarize yourself with genuine art and welcome that quality into your life, the very quality of your life changes into something top-tier.
Why Does the Tenacity of Sakichi Toyoda, Who Was Called an Eccentric, Live On Inside Sanraku’s Brush?
People who move history possess a passionate intensity that could be called a form of madness.
You know of Sakichi Toyoda, who laid the foundation for Japanese industry, don’t you?
He was truly an invention-mad individual who was treated as an “eccentric” and a “madman” by those around him.
From morning till night, day after day, he would make something only to break it, building it and rebuilding it again.
Sakichi, a quiet and eccentric man, lived solely with the single-minded passion of “wanting to invent something to make everyone’s life easier.”
Where does such tenacity and patience well up from?
In truth, Kano Sanraku was also a man of similar tenacity.
Even while his life was being targeted and he hid deep in the mountains of Kyoto, he ground his ink and moved his brush every single day.
“If I put down my brush here and now, the tradition of the Kano School will die, and the world of beauty I loved will vanish. No matter what, I must pass it on to the next generation.”
Only that strong desire kept his life going.
“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 be born into the world.”
— Kiichiro Toyoda
These words by Kiichiro Toyoda, Sakichi’s son, also synchronize beautifully with Sanraku’s way of life, don’t they?
No matter how much those around you oppose, you do it yourself, working the longest and the hardest.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
If you are currently feeling lonely in your work or life, thinking that “nobody understands me,” please remember the figures of Sanraku and Sakichi.
That lonely effort of yours is the very action of the highest value that creates a new future.
If It Is Not Communicated, Does It Mean It Doesn’t Exist? What Akio Morita and Choya Umeshu Teach Us About the Absolute Value of “Communicating”
No matter how wonderful a thing you create, if it is not communicated to the other person, it is the same as not existing in this world.
Akio Morita, the co-founder of Sony, said this:
“Even if a product is meticulously researched in some corner and manufactured with immense hardship when no such thing has ever been produced and no one has ever seen it before, if you want to turn that product into a commodity, you must arouse a desire among people to possess it. Otherwise, no matter how excellent a ‘product’ it may be, it can never become a ‘commodity.'”
— Akio Morita
Why must we pour so much energy into “communicating”?
Let us uncover the history of Choya Umeshu.
“If you don’t succeed with plum liqueur, give up on life.”
With such a tragic determination, they continued to appeal the value of Umeshu to the world.
They raised a taste that was initially ignored by everyone as just a homemade flavor into a special commodity loved all over Japan and the world.
It was because they believed from the bottom of their hearts that “it is vital to communicate good things.”
Kano Sanraku was the same.
He desperately tried to communicate through his works how much his paintings were needed for the hearts of people wounded by war.
Please imagine the screen paintings of “Daikaku-ji” that he painted.
The moment you enter the room, the space before you brightens up instantly, giving you the illusion of having stumbled into the Pure Land.
Sanraku aroused the desire in the hearts of those who viewed it to feel, “I am glad to be alive.”
If you are suffering daily trying to communicate your feelings to someone, that is a wonderful thing.
No amount of marketing can make a bad piece of work a hit.
If you live with genuine sincerity, it will surely reach the person who matters to you someday.
Why Do the Words of Steve Jobs Bind You and Kano Sanraku in a Firm Accord?
Here, let me introduce a quote by the modern genius, Steve Jobs.
“To pursue beauty and deliver it to people. That is the only way to express one’s soul.”
— Steve Jobs
When Jobs created a literally “eye-opening,” new product called the iPhone, he was thoroughly obsessed with the beauty of the invisible circuitry on the reverse side.
Why did he need to make the design beautiful in places no one would look at?
It was because he knew that “God is in the details.”
And that attitude was the “service” of paying the highest respect to you as a human being.
Kano Sanraku’s paintings are also the very essence of this spirit of Jobs.
If you look closely at Sanraku’s paintings, each single leaf and every single stamen of a flower is depicted with an terrifying precision.
In places where no one might notice from afar, he poured his life into carving out beauty.
Why did he go that far?
It was because his sole focus was to please “you,” who would stand in front of that painting sometime in the future.
Jobs’ quote is also deeply connected to your daily life.
When you neatly arrange your shoes where no one is looking, or quietly perform nameless chores for someone else, you are stepping into the same sacred realm of beauty as Jobs and Sanraku.
I know your small commitments very well.
What Is the Meaning of “True Success” Spoken by the Bible, and What Ultimate Solace Do the Words of Osamu Dazai Bring You?
Here, let us step back in history and listen to the words of the Bible, the most widely read book in the world.
In the New Testament, in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 20, Verses 26 to 27, there are these words:
“Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave.”
— The New Testament, from the Gospel of Matthew
Why must one serve others to become great?
At first glance, this might sound like a strange story.
However, this is the truth of life.
A person who only pursues their own profit will ultimately lose all allies and face a lonely end.
Giving to others and serving others is the method that circles back to fill oneself with the greatest happiness.
Henry Ford also said this:
“Most people think of success as a getting thing. But in reality, success is a giving thing.”
Even when the world turned into the era of the Tokugawa who targeted his life, Sanraku continued to give his talent generously to people to comfort their hearts.
He became the ultimate “servant” to the world through his paintbrush.
And let us layer the words of the author Osamu Dazai after this Biblical verse.
Dazai was a writer who looked more deeply than anyone into human weakness and loneliness.
“Humans must never become strong. It is most beautiful to live timorously, holding hands with one another while remaining weak.”
— Osamu Dazai
These are the words of Osamu Dazai.
Do they not gently seep into your heart?
Are you pushing yourself too hard to be strong?
Are you cornering yourself, thinking “I have to be firm” or “I have to be perfect”?
The “servant” the Bible speaks of is something only a person who knows their own weakness can become.
Sanraku, too, knew his own weakness because he was helped by many people to survive, and precisely because of that, he was able to paint such gentle, enveloping pictures.
It is fine to stay weak.
Come and meet me in front of my paintings just as your weak self.
Why Does Having a Hobby of Art Collecting Turn Your Life into the “Highest Miracle”?
Have you ever had a hobby of “collecting” something?
In fact, welcoming works of art into your daily life—that is, the act of “art collecting”—holds many special benefits that fundamentally change your life.
Let us list the specific benefits for you in bullet points:
- Benefit 1: Just by hanging it in your room, that space turns into your very own “sacred sanctuary (safe place).”
- Benefit 2: By gazing at a painting every day, stress is unconsciously reduced, and your brain is deeply refreshed.
- Benefit 3: By continuously touching top-tier beauty, your intuition and sense are refined, improving your judgment at work.
- Benefit 4: When you feel lonely, you can gain a sense of security that the “gaze” within the painting is gently watching over you.
- Benefit 5: By owning an eternal value that is not swayed by trends, an unwavering confidence is born in your heart.
How does that sound?
Collecting art is not mere extravagance.
It is the most certain investment into your own soul.
The aristocrats and merchants of the time scrambled to get their hands on Kano Sanraku’s paintings.
Why? Because displaying his paintings in their homes was equivalent to obtaining a “spiritual bulletproof vest” to survive the war-torn world.
Lao Tzu said, “He who knows that he has enough is rich.”
You place a single painting that you like in your room to enrich your own heart.
From that very moment, your life is liberated from the evaluations of others, and a new story of your own begins to move.
What Is the Beauty of the “Way of Life Without Looking Aside” Proven by Soichiro Honda and His Companions?
Soichiro Honda, the founder of Honda Motor Co., Ltd., is a legend of Japanese manufacturing.
The episodes between him and his right-hand man, Takeo Fujisawa, always warm the heart.
Soichiro Honda was a true “technology-mad” individual who thought of nothing but technology.
He left all the financial calculations and company management to Takeo Fujisawa.
“I want to make the best motorcycle in the world!”
With that single-minded focus, he was tinkering with engines all day long, covered in oil.
On the other hand, Shotaro Kamiya, who was called the god of sales at Toyota, and Taizo Ishida, who supported the finances, also exerted all their efforts into their respective roles “without looking aside.”
Why were they able to concentrate on one thing to this extent?
It was because they trusted their companions and dedicated their lives to their mission.
What beneficial meaning do their quotes bring to your life?
Soichiro Honda said, “Do not force yourself to do what you hate. Do what you love thoroughly.”
In your daily life, are you spreading yourself too thin and wearing yourself out?
Sanraku’s way of life was the same.
He did not cast a glance at the muddy struggles of the political world; he dedicated himself solely to “painting.”
Do not look aside.
That lifestyle of subtraction is the strongest life hack to explode your energy to the maximum and make life go smoothly.
“There Is No Life in Life; There Is Life in Death” — What Is the Final Door for You to Be Liberated from Loneliness Right Now?
In historical maxims, there is this profound saying:
“There is no life in life; there is life in death.”
This means that a state of simply living aimlessly is not true life, and it is precisely within an extreme state where one is prepared for death that the true brilliance of life is found.
Jean Calvin, the religious reformer, also spoke passionately about the absolute loneliness of man before God and the mission within it.
The Apostle Paul, while experiencing numerous hardships, persecutions, and imprisonments, continued to spread the gospel with an indomitable spirit, stating, “For I am convinced that nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God.”
Why were they able to endure such hardships?
It was because they were looking at “eternity.”
How cold and lonely the winters in Kyoto must have been when Kano Sanraku lived in hiding.
However, within that “death,” he discovered the life of paintings that would live on eternally.
Your current suffering and loneliness are just like this.
It is precisely at the moment when you think “I might be done for” that your true strength and the art to save you appear right before your eyes.
Do you know that you live your life carrying a little bit of loneliness?
Mimi Takamizawa’s work was created precisely to comfort that heart of yours.
It is art meant to heal your heart.
Please engrave these words of mine deeply into the notebook of your heart.
Through my paintings, I am always speaking to you.
When you weep alone in your room, the “eyes” within my work gaze at you intently, wiping away those tears.
You and I are firmly tied by an invisible, beautiful thread called art.
What Should You Start with Right Now to Bring About Miracles in Your Daily Life?
Thank you so much for staying with my long story up to this point.
This conversation with you was a special time for me, irreplaceable by anything else.
Lastly, I recommend an “immediate” action to you.
It is nothing difficult.
Starting today, try to direct your awareness just a little bit toward the “beauty” around you.
The color of the sky, the flowers blooming by the roadside, or the design of your favorite mug.
All of them are a full-hearted service to you from the world.
And, if you would be so kind, please keep my works in just a small corner of your mind.
I am always here praying that your life will be filled with surprising impressions and eye-opening joys.
You are not alone.
I, and all the geniuses of history, are always on your side.
Now, take a deep breath and take a new step forward.
Your future will turn out unbelievably well!
P.S. A Painter’s Confession, and the Indomitable Service Rendered to You
As a postscript, let me share a short and pleasant story about the painter named Mimi Takamizawa.
I am slightly different from ordinary painters.
Because I do not use a canvas and a brush at all.
I create all my works digitally and print them on premium printmaking paper using a cutting-edge technique called “giclée printing” to deliver them to you.
The themes I draw are your eyes and my eyes, Christianity, eternity, psychology, truth, gaze, history, solitude, isolation, hardship, resurrection, and liberation.
To speak of a familiar topic, I absolutely love chatting with you.
I believe that a painter should not just be someone who draws pictures, but a “doctor who saves souls.”
An artist’s work is a full-hearted service out of one’s own pocket.
It is a devotion to you.
An artist dedicates everything to you right in front of them.
Therefore, please do not abandon me.
Please laugh at me.
I am a desperate, service-providing clown who grows stronger by being laughed at.
I am a man of patience, a man of indomitable spirit, and I never give up.
It was after learning the story of Vincent van Gogh that I resolved to become a painter.
The “Mimi” (meaning ear in Japanese) in the name Mimi Takamizawa is taken after that famous ear-slitting incident of Van Gogh.
In a letter to his brother Theo, Van Gogh said:
“I want to express something comforting in pictures, like music.”
Don’t you think this quote is truly wonderful?
Work or artwork that expresses something but fails to move anyone’s heart or bring comfort holds no value at all.
After Vincent passed away, his brother Theo also passed away shortly after as if following him, but Theo’s wife, Jo, said this:
“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.”
It is precisely because of Jo’s tenacity that Van Gogh’s paintings reach us today.
I know that all masterpieces of the past were not painted by innate talent alone, but were brought forth through decades of trial and error.
Mimi Takamizawa continues to paint eyes in his works to keep feeling you right in front of him.
I want to know you, who are right in front of me.
I respect Tokuji Munetsugu, the founder of CoCo Ichibanya, from the bottom of my heart.
Like him, I exert all my effort into my work without looking aside.
Mr. Munetsugu was single-minded about work and did absolutely nothing else.
“This is no time to be doing hobbies.”
It was classical music that saved him during his unfortunate childhood.
After retiring as the manager of CoCo Ichibanya, he built and managed a music hall himself because he loves classical music so much, but during his days as the active manager of CoCo Ichibanya, he did not listen to music at all.
His thoroughness bordered on madness, feeling that it was no time to listen to music or indulge in hobbies, and that he must dedicate all his time to the customers.
When he managed the coffee shop that was the predecessor of CoCo Ichibanya, customers did not come easily at first, so Mr. and Mrs. Munetsugu survived by eating the “crusts of sandwich bread” that were not used for the shop’s sandwiches.
Since he started from zero, he says such things were natural and are rather fond memories.
He worked every day believing that if he stuck strictly to a customer-first policy, things would surely improve.
He concentrated on doing it every day, like stacking bricks.
Immediate decision, immediate conclusion, immediate execution.
If you try anything, results will show.
First is to do it, but you have to work your hardest instead.
In that spirit, I dedicate my life to my work, and I dedicate my entire life to you right in front of me.
I present these words of Tokuji Munetsugu to you:
“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 interfere with my work. There were times I worked 5,640 hours a year. I felt that if I didn’t lead by example, my subordinates wouldn’t work. I didn’t look aside; I dedicated myself to management.”
“It was a very lonely life. That is why I wanted others to have even a little interest in me. I wanted them to be interested. That became 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 just a little.”
— Tokuji Munetsugu
Life is not determined by how one is born and raised.
Mr. Munetsugu does not know the faces of his real parents.
He entered an orphanage immediately after birth, and even after being taken in by foster parents, he spent a destitute childhood due to his foster father’s gambling addiction, even eating weeds in the summer to stave off hunger. It was a life of ups and downs.
Moving forward haphazardly, but dedicating himself to management instead.
Hands-on approach; working 12 or more hours a day is the bare minimum requirement.
He didn’t want to rest, he didn’t want to play, making work his hobby and sticking to a you-first policy.
When you are right in front of him, he welcomes you with a standing ovation in his heart.
Things of value often lack immediate effects.
Things do not go well from the very beginning.
Rather than thinking, try doing it first.
Please do not give up easily.
What kind of life it becomes is determined by a person’s diligence, patience, and continuity.
Thomas Edison also says this:
“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. My secret to success is to keep going after others have given up.”
— Thomas Edison
Do you know that you live your life carrying a little bit of loneliness?
Mimi Takamizawa’s work was created precisely to comfort that heart of yours.
It is art meant to heal your heart.
Lastly, I would like to dedicate the grand words of Henry Ford, whom I respect the most, to close this letter.
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t—you’re right.”
— Henry Ford
If it’s you, you can absolutely do it.
Believe in yourself and take a step forward.
I am always by your side.
