Hello.
How are you doing?
With what kind of feelings in your heart are you reading these words right now?
Right now, I am writing this letter exclusively for you.
I am Mimi Takamizawa, a painter.
I have been waiting for this exact moment to talk with you so deeply.
First of all, I would like to bring you a surprising piece of news that requires your immediate attention.
What I am about to tell you is a special, unlike-any-other story that will dramatically change your life.
In your daily life, don’t you find yourself starving for eye-opening, beautiful moments?
Or, are you perhaps on the verge of being crushed by unbelievable pressure or profound loneliness?
Please rest assured.
By reading this article, the pain in your heart will vanish, and you will gain guaranteed wisdom that will make your life go well starting tomorrow.
Why? Because the power of first-rate art that has overcome the trials of history is condensed right here.
Did you know that you are living your life carrying a small amount of loneliness?
It was to comfort your heart that the works of Mimi Takamizawa were created.
It is art meant to heal your heart.
The main character of this wonderful dialogue is none other than you yourself.
Our conversation is filled with powerful lessons that you can use in your daily life right now.
Please relax and enjoy this warm chat with me.
“The poverty of the spirit is superior to all riches.” — Jean Calvin
Have you really never felt “incompetent” and despaired of yourself?
Tell me, have you ever shed tears feeling the limits of your own talent?
Are there nights when you feel sad, thinking that no one appreciates how hard you work?
To that heart of yours, I offer these words first.
“In the end, being devoid of talent and skill, I simply cling to this single line.” — Matsuo Bashō
Even Matsuo Bashō, who was called the Saint of Haiku, humbled himself as “devoid of talent and skill” and had no choice but to cling to a single path.
Don’t you think this is a surprising turn of the story?
That great genius, just like you, was frightened by his own helplessness.
Here, let me tell you a story of a great genius in history who is deeply relevant to you.
His name is Kanō Eitoku.
He was one of the greatest genius painters in Japanese history, serving Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
What kind of image do you have when you hear the name Kanō Eitoku?
Do you think of him as a “dazzling genius who lived in a completely different world from yours”?
That is a huge misunderstanding.
In truth, Kanō Eitoku was a flesh-and-blood human being, exactly like you.
In fact, he lived every single day under far more extreme pressure than you do.
Why? Because what he painted were giant screen paintings for castles that symbolized the power of the rulers of the realm.
It was a world of urgent terror where a single failure could cost him his life instantly.
From morning till night, he kept gripping his brush, shaving away his own lifespan.
Can you overlay this kind of obsession and patience onto your own life?
Knowing Kanō Eitoku’s agony becomes a powerful specific medicine to dissolve the stress of your daily life.
The overwhelming golden-walled paintings he drew possess the power to shake the viewer’s soul and blow away small daily anxieties.
To familiarize yourself with art means to commune your soul with the giants of history in this way, and to drastically improve your life.
“I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.” — The Bible (Old Testament, Psalm 16:8)
“Adults are easily deceived. Moreover, they wish to be deceived.” — Osamu Dazai
Why does a difficult situation turn into the greatest opportunity for you?
Is there a huge wall standing in front of you right now?
Work, human relationships, or anxiety about the future.
Don’t you want to escape from those difficulties as quickly as possible?
Here, let me introduce wonderful words from a great person that will truly encourage you from the bottom of my heart.
“An opportunity always comes at first as a crisis, or manifests itself as a burden.” — Aizō Sōma
How do you feel?
Isn’t a new light shining into your heart right now?
The burdens and crises you are carrying right now are, in fact, the very first steps for your life to go well.
Kanō Eitoku walked exactly the kind of life described in these words.
In the midst of the chaos of the Warring States period, where no one knew when they might die, he was faced with one massive order after another.
Azuchi Castle, Osaka Castle, Jurakudai.
Every single one of them was a monumental project where failure was not an option, the kind that would make one’s eyes wide with astonishment.
An ordinary person would have given up halfway, unable to bear the pressure.
However, Kanō Eitoku was different.
He transformed that crisis into the only opportunity to perfect his art.
Why don’t you try applying his indomitable spirit to your work today?
It is the obsession of “I will do it because it is difficult, and because no one else does it or can do it.”
If you are fighting lonely at your workplace right now, that is proof that you are a top-tier person.
Kanō Eitoku is surely watching over your lonely efforts from heaven.
The overwhelming energy possessed by his paintings exists precisely to awaken the passion sleeping within your heart.
“There is no life within life; there is life within death.” — Old Japanese Proverb (Zen saying)
Why can the three great questions your heart holds be solved in an instant by art?
Here, as a private time for just you and me, let us think together about three questions in your heart.
I want to walk alongside your life.
Isn’t your first question the anxiety of loneliness: “Am I truly loved by someone?”
Isn’t your second question the exhaustion toward the future: “How long will this painful daily life continue?”
Isn’t your third question the emptiness toward eternity: “When I die, will everything just disappear?”
These three problem points can actually be completely solved by art.
Do you know why?
Because art is a miracle that gives visible form to invisible love and eternal truth.
Look at Kanō Eitoku’s paintings.
Even now, more than 400 years later, his passion lives on and speaks to you.
His works transcend time and fully validate you, who are living in the present.
You are not alone.
The works I paint were also born to answer those three questions of yours and to comfort you from the bottom of my heart.
Please, let the tension leave your shoulders.
Art is the best prescription to gently wrap around your wounded heart.
“Those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know.” — Laozi
Why does a mad passion, so intense that people laugh at you as an eccentric, open up a new future for you?
Have you ever been called a “strange person” by those around you?
Have you ever been isolated because you held an opinion different from everyone else?
In times like that, please remember the words of this great inventor who supported Japanese industry.
“I do it because it is difficult. I do it because no one else does it or can do it. I might be a fool for doing so, but without such fools, new things would never be born into the world. Success or failure is not the end. What matters is the courage to continue.” — Kiichiro Toyoda
This is exactly the powerful life lesson that will change your daily life anew.
Kiichiro Toyoda’s father, Sakichi Toyoda, was also an eccentric who was called an “invention maniac.”
From morning till night, day after day, he would make something, break it, build it, and rebuild it again.
He was treated as a madman by his surroundings and isolated as a quiet eccentric.
However, at the root of his passion was a deep love for you, wishing to “make everyone’s life easier.”
Don’t you think this is a deeply moving, surprising story?
In fact, Kanō Eitoku was also a similar “painting maniac” eccentric.
He boldly improved the meticulous style of the Kanō school up to that point and created a new expression that made the people of the time widen their eyes, splashing paint with a giant brush all at once.
He might have been criticized by those around him as being “lazy” or “violent.”
However, Eitoku did not look sideways and pushed forward on the path he believed in.
Please do not throw away your own dedication either, and carry it through to the end.
Just as the founder of Choya Umeshu pushed himself by saying, “If you don’t succeed with plum liqueur, give up on life,” the sight of someone risking their life for one thing is truly beautiful.
I will never laugh at you for living your life with all your might.
Rather, for the sake of you, whom I love so much, I am always sending you a standing ovation.
“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone.” — The Bible (New Testament, Colossians 3:13)
“Human beings, at times, tell undeniable, colossal lies.” — Osamu Dazai
What is the ultimate method to correctly convey your wonderful value to the world?
Have you ever felt frustrated because your goodness was not conveyed well to those around you?
Have you ever felt sad, thinking, “I am working so hard, why don’t they understand?”
To you, I present these words of Akio Morita, the founder of Sony, which strike at the very essence of the matter.
“A product that has never been produced before, that no one has ever seen, which was created at the end of extreme hardships by someone working diligently in a corner somewhere—if you wish to make that product into a commodity, you must arouse a desire among people to obtain it. No matter how excellent a ‘product’ it may be, it cannot become a ‘commodity’ unless you do so.” — Akio Morita
What a wonderful quote.
It is of the utmost importance to convey good things.
If it is not conveyed, it is the same as if it does not exist.
Your kindness and your talent take on value only after they are conveyed to the other party.
Kanō Eitoku was also a “professional of conveying.”
He completely captured the heart of Oda Nobunaga, a fastidious ruler of the realm, by flaunting the overwhelming quality of his own paintings.
He thoroughly researched Nobunaga’s tastes and provided screen paintings that brought out his majesty to the highest degree.
Don’t you think this is a top-tier marketing method that can be used immediately in your business or daily human relationships today?
Providing what the other party wants with quality beyond their imagination.
Quality is remembered forever; price is forgotten.
No marketing can make a bad work a hit.
That is exactly why you must aim for the real thing.
What Kanō Eitoku teaches you in your life is the meaningfulness of always aiming for the highest and continuing to polish yourself.
“The purpose of our lives is to help others.” — Apostle Paul
Why does the aesthetics of Steve Jobs directly connect to Kanō Eitoku’s paintings and your daily life?
Here, let us consider the words of that modern genius whom you also love.
Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, said this.
“Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.” — Steve Jobs
What kind of relationship does this word have with you?
Are you being chased by many miscellaneous tasks every day, losing sight of what is truly important?
What Jobs wanted to say is that you should pour all your energy into raising the “quality” of your life.
Kanō Eitoku’s works were exactly this “home run” itself.
Look at the Chinese Lions screen painting he drew.
There is absolutely no cutting of corners there.
The overwhelmingly high quality has transcended more than 400 years of time and gives you a deep impression today.
The great pioneers who supported Japanese industry—Soichiro Honda and Takeo Fujisawa of Honda Motor, and Shotaro Kamiya and Taizo Ishida who supported Toyota—all dedicated their lives to this “pursuit of quality.”
They approached their work with obsession and patience in order to please the customers right in front of them.
The small job you do for someone today will also sublimate into art by your obsession with quality.
The line connecting Kanō Eitoku and you is right here.
Your living carefully with pride in your work is the finest practice of art.
Henry Ford has also left these eye-opening words.
“Most people think of success as something to get. But the truth is, success is giving.” — Henry Ford
Please obtain true success by giving your talent for the sake of someone else.
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” — Thomas Edison
P.S. A Love Letter of the Soul, Offered to My Dearest You from the Painter Mimi Takamizawa
Thank you so much for reading until the very end.
My heart is filled with happiness from this dense conversation time with you.
Lastly, as a postscript, let me share a little fun story about myself as a painter, Mimi Takamizawa.
I am a modern painter, but I do not use conventional canvases or brushes at all.
I paint pictures using the latest digital technology, and print them on the highest quality printmaking paper using a special method called “giclée printing technique” to create my works.
It is a fusion of digital and analog.
Are you wondering why I take such a method?
Because it is the only choice to deliver the paintings in their best condition to the people living 100 or 200 years in the future, and above all, to you living right now.
The themes of my works are very close to your daily life.
Your eyes and my eyes, Christianity, eternity, psychology, truth, gaze, history, loneliness, isolation, hardship, resurrection, and liberation.
Aren’t these all the very pains and joys of living that you feel day by day?
To me, a painter is a “doctor who saves the soul.”
The work of an artist is a supreme service at one’s own expense, an absolute devotion to you.
I sacrifice all of my life to you who are right in front of me.
Therefore, please, do not abandon me.
Please, laugh at my inexperienced self.
I am a man of patience, a man of indomitability, who grows stronger by being laughed at.
I will never give up.
It was after learning the poignant story of Vincent van Gogh that I resolved to become a painter.
The name “Mimi” (meaning “Ear”) in Mimi Takamizawa was named by myself after that famous ear-cutting incident of Van Gogh.
Van Gogh left this wonderful quote.
“I want to express something comforting in a picture, like music.” — Vincent van Gogh
I sympathize with this from the bottom of my heart.
A work or a job that expresses something but cannot make anyone’s heart feel deeply moved, that cannot comfort you, has no value whatsoever.
I know that all the masterpieces of the past were not drawn purely by innate talent, but were born out of decades of tearful trial and error.
That is precisely why I keep feeling you on the other side of the screen by continuing to draw “eyes” in my works.
I want to know you, who are right in front of me, more deeply.
After Van Gogh passed away, his younger brother Theo also passed away from illness soon after.
At that time, Theo’s wife, Jo, stood up in the midst of despair.
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.” — Johanna van Gogh-Bonger (Jo)
It is because of this obsessed service of Jo that we are able to encounter Van Gogh’s paintings today.
The wonderfulness of conveying good things is right here as well.
Also, from the bottom of my heart, I respect Tokuji Munetsugu, the founder of Curry House CoCo Ichibanya.
He was a man of a single line who put all his energy into his work without looking sideways.
During his active years, he didn’t listen to his beloved classical music at all, saying it was no time to be indulging in hobbies.
He dedicated all of his time for the sake of his customers.
In the early days of the coffee shop that was the predecessor of CoCo Ichibanya, customers did not come at first, and Mr. and Mrs. Munetsugu staved off hunger by eating the “crusts of white bread” left over from the sandwiches for lunch.
Since they started from zero, they look back with a smile saying that such things were a matter of course and rather a good memory.
Believing that things would surely get better if they stuck to the customer-first principle, they continued their work every day, concentrating as if stacking bricks.
Immediate decision, immediate conclusion, immediate execution.
His way of life overlaps perfectly with the patience of Kanō Eitoku, Sakichi Toyoda, and Van Gogh.
Tokuji Munetsugu speaks of his own life in this way.
“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. I felt that if I didn’t take the lead and set an example, my subordinates wouldn’t work for me. I didn’t look sideways; I dedicated myself 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 has become my starting point. Therefore, rather than starting a business to make money, I wanted to make people happy. I wanted people to say that they were glad I existed, even just a little bit.” — Tokuji Munetsugu
He does not know the faces of his biological parents.
Starting from a helpless orphanage, he spent a childhood of extreme poverty, eating weeds in the summer to survive starvation.
He rushed through such a tumultuous life, taking things as they came, but risking his life.
Working more than 12 hours a day was the minimum condition.
He didn’t want to rest, he didn’t want to play.
Why? Because the customer (you) right in front of him was his everything.
It is the customer-first principle.
When a customer came to the shop, he would welcome them with a standing ovation in his heart.
Value-carrying things, more often than not, do not have 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 will be is decided by that person’s diligence, patience, and continuity.
Edison also said:
“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 of success is to keep going after others have given up.” — Thomas Edison
Did you know that you are living your life carrying a small amount of loneliness?
It was to comfort your heart that the works of Mimi Takamizawa were created.
It is art meant to heal your heart.
For your sake, I will continue my desperate service, becoming a fool and putting forth all my strength today as well.
I sacrifice all of my life to you.
Lastly, I present a powerful quote by Henry Ford, whom I greatly respect, which will change your life forever.
“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it. Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t—you’re right.” — Henry Ford
You can absolutely do it.
Believe in yourself and take a step forward.
I am always on your side.
With love, from Mimi Takamizawa.