Hello.
I have been waiting for a long time to have this quiet, private conversation with you.
This is a secret story meant for no one else but you, the person reading these words right now.
I have always been watching the solitude in the depths of your heart, the loneliness you can tell no one, and the sadness that has accumulated before you even realized it.
Please, let the tension leave your shoulders and listen to my voice.
Every single letter is a desperate love letter dedicated to you.
A Wounded Bird Finding a Single Red Flower in the Endless Wilderness
Tell me, have you ever felt at a complete loss, as if your entire life were nothing but a gray canvas?
Why must we keep living while being hurt so deeply?
Seeking that answer, I want to take you under the dazzling Mexican sun, into the life of a woman who fought continuously against intense physical agony.
Her name was Frida Kahlo.
She was a painter with those passionate, yet profoundly sorrowful eyes, and eyebrows that met in the middle.
“The definition of a happy life is how much of your suffering you were able to transform into love.”
―― Seneca
When Frida was young, she was involved in a catastrophic bus collision.
An iron handrail pierced her abdomen, her spine was shattered, and her body was literally broken to pieces.
For months, and then for years, she was confined to her bed, bound by a rigid plaster cast, with nothing to do but stare at the ceiling.
If you were in such a depth of despair, what on earth would you think about?
It would make anyone want to cry out and scream, asking why God would inflict such a trial upon them.
Instead of screaming, Frida took up a brush.
She had a mirror attached to the ceiling above her bed and stared intently at her own reflection, day after day.
What she painted was not beautiful scenery or tranquil still lifes.
It was her own appearance, exactly as she was—bleeding, weeping, and with nails driven all into her body.
That was the beginning of her act of “having skin in the game.”
“The words of those who do not have skin in the game carry not a single penny of worth. Only the blood flowing from one’s own wounds speaks the truth.”
―― Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Frida’s paintings grip the hearts of those who look at them.
This is because she, just like you, was fighting against a deep sense of loneliness.
She literally threw her life into the very scene of her own pain.
Having skin in the game does not simply mean paying money.
It means shaving away your own soul, exposing your wounds, and offering everything for the sake of the person right in front of you—for you.
The All-Too-Beautiful Curse of Love Carved Upon a Burning Canvas
In speaking of Frida Kahlo’s life, there is one man who absolutely cannot be overlooked.
He was Diego Rivera, a master of the Mexican mural movement.
He was a genius painter, but at the same time, an absolute menace to women and a monster of a man.
Frida loved him to the point of madness, and she was wounded just as deeply by him.
Diego even had an affair with her own younger sister, tearing Frida’s heart completely to shreds.
“A human being is most easily destroyed by the very thing they love most deeply.”
―― Montaigne
Why did she keep loving such a man?
Don’t you find it strange?
Yet, you must have experienced this yourself.
Even when you know someone will hurt you, there are people you just cannot leave, or dreams you simply cannot give up on in this world, aren’t there?
Frida slammed the pain of her torn chest directly onto the canvas.
The face of Diego she painted was, at times, depicted right in the center of her own forehead as a third eye.
Even when she did not want to see it, it was right there.
To love was to live itself, and at the same time, it was to look directly into hell.
“There is no life within life; true life is found within death. Those who wish to truly live must look into the abyss of death at least once.”
―― An Ancient Japanese Scholar
The pain in her body grew more intense with each passing year.
She underwent surgery after surgery, and eventually, her right leg had to be amputated below the knee.
Can you imagine how terrifying and despairing it is to lose a leg?
However, she wrote this in her diary:
“Feet, what do I need them for if I have wings to fly?”
This line struck my heart, and it made me wish for you to know this strength as well.
Even while locked inside the cage of her physical body, her spirit was spreading its wings to the very ends of the earth.
Quiet Footsteps Approaching from the Depths of Darkness to Save You
The story of Frida Kahlo is not merely a tragic tale of a pitiful woman’s hardships.
This is a grand narrative of resurrection meant to validate the very existence of you.
Just like the Gospels written in the Bible, her life contained thorough suffering, followed by redemption through art.
She elevated her own agony into a form of entertainment, attempting to bring comfort and joy to those who looked at her work.
Is this not the very definition of a desperate desire to serve, achieved by shaving away one’s own life?
“The essence of art lies in shattering one’s own bones to make a torch, using it to illuminate the dark footsteps of others.”
―― Shuji Terayama
She did not tell a single lie to the people who looked at her paintings.
There is a saying: if you see a fraud and do not cry fraud, you are a fraud yourself.
Frida exposed everything honestly—her ugliness, her suffering, all of it.
That is precisely why her paintings still directly shake your heart today, many decades later.
The loneliness you carry without being able to tell anyone is deeply connected to the wounds displayed inside Frida’s paintings.
You are not alone.
Tell me, doesn’t your heart feel just a little bit lighter now?
“The things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are unseen are eternal. We must fight for the sake of unseen values.”
―― Frédéric Bastiat (From What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen)
Every single thin line drawn in Frida’s paintings is the cry of her life.
She offered her entire existence as a service to you.
“I was here. I was suffering just like you,” she whispers to you from within the canvas.
Why are we drawn so powerfully to her paintings?
It is for no other reason than that her works are weeping on our behalf.
Piercing Through the Storm of Fate to Reach the Boundary Line of Light
On this battlefield called life, how ought we to behave?
Let us put an end to those days of waiting in fear, simply hoping for the storm to pass.
“The most important thing in battle is not defeating the enemy, but conquering the fear that lurks within oneself.”
―― Sun Tzu
Frida launched a direct assault against her greatest enemy—her own destiny.
Her only weapons were a single brush and vibrant colors.
In an overwhelmingly disadvantageous situation where she could not move from her bed, she built a kingdom entirely her own.
Don’t you think this is the ultimate strategy, a true victory over life?
“Strategy is the art of concentrating all of one’s energy onto a single focal point within an uncertain situation.”
―― Carl von Clausewitz
She concentrated her energy solely on “living” and “painting.”
The reputation of the world and the eyes of others did not matter to her at all.
She simply wanted to deliver her soul to you, the person right in front of her.
With that single-minded devotion, she kept painting.
“To achieve the maximum effect, one must not choose the path of least resistance, but must deliver a blow to the most decisive point.”
―― B. H. Liddell Hart
The decisive point for Frida was the universal “pain” that resides in the deepest corners of the human heart.
She pierced her brush accurately into the core of that pain.
That is why her work transcends time and space to pierce your chest right now.
If you are feeling even a little moved right now, it means her life-risking service has achieved a magnificent success.
We Shall Meet Again in the Place Where the Wind of Freedom Blows
We live our lives bound by invisible chains called social rules and the expectations of others.
Everyone wishes to be free.
Where, then, does true freedom actually exist?
“To reject government intervention and trust in the free will of the individual and the dynamism of the market is what leads humanity to true prosperity.”
―― Ludwig von Mises
These are words of economics, but the exact same thing can be said for the human heart.
To reclaim your emotions into your own hands, rather than being controlled by someone else.
Even though Frida was robbed of her physical freedom, she possessed complete freedom of the spirit.
She liberated herself from every conventional norm that sought to bind her.
“True value does not emerge through artificial planning, but only within the accumulation of an individual’s free choices.”
―― Friedrich Hayek
The fact that you chose to read this text today is also a free choice.
And that choice has tied you and me together with an invisible thread.
I absolutely had to tell you: that solitude of yours is by no means something to be ashamed of.
It is the greatest proof that you are living your life with absolute sincerity.
Illuminating the Darkness with the Light of Intellect, We Shall Walk Onward Forever
The ancient sages were also continuously fighting against the absurdities of the world, just as we do.
Their words are like a single ray of light illuminating the path ahead for us who live in the modern era.
“Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.”
―― Hypatia
Do not stop thinking.
Why am I here right now?
Why was I hurt by that person’s words?
Continuing to question is what makes you strong.
Frida, too, continued to question and continued to paint.
“Know yourself. For God has ignited a flame of love within you that can never be extinguished.”
―― Saint Catherine of Siena
That flame is inside you as well.
It might look small and about to go out right now, but I am here, blowing on it together with you.
This text is my desperate service to ensure the flame in your heart does not die out.
Please, do not give up on yourself.
A Supreme Gift Left by a Magician of Words at the Risk of His Life
Here, let me tell you the story of a legendary poet who lived in the far-off lands of Arabia.
His name was Al-Mutanabbi.
He was a man of overwhelming talent and arrogance, so much so that he claimed to be a “prophet.”
It is said that his words possessed a terrifying rhythm and magical power, almost like a hypnotic spell.
It was even praised that his poems could be read even by the blind, and heard even by the deaf.
“Words are sharper than blades; they can destroy the physical body, but they can never erase the soul.”
―― Arabic Proverb
One day, Al-Mutanabbi severely insulted a powerful tribe within one of his poems.
Infuriated, they gathered in great numbers to ambush Al-Mutanabbi while he was traveling.
The enemy outnumbered him overwhelmingly.
Even Al-Mutanabbi thought it wiser to flee for the time being, and attempted to turn his horse around.
It was at that exact moment.
His servant, who was following behind him, began to recite aloud one of the most famous verses Al-Mutanabbi had ever written:
“The night, the horse, and the desert know me; and the sword, the spear, the paper, and the pen know me as well.”
The servant said:
“Shall Al-Mutanabbi, who wrote such a courageous poem, flee from the enemy?”
The moment he heard those words, his pride as a poet blazed up within his chest.
He gave a faint smile and turned his horse back around.
Knowing with absolute certainty that he would be killed if he went there, he plunged into the midst of the enemy to take responsibility for his own words with his life.
And there, he met a grand and tragic end.
Even now, more than a thousand years later, he is remembered as the true poet who chose death over the dishonor of fleeing.
To him, poetry was not a mere game of words.
It was life itself.
I, too, am delivering these words to you right now with that same kind of resolution as Al-Mutanabbi.
If this life-shaving service of mine can change your tedious daily life even just a little, there could be no greater joy.
A Supple Way of Living, Taught by an Old Wise Man, Like Water
Finally, let us listen to the ancient wisdom of the East as well.
We always push ourselves too hard, trying to be strong, trying to be perfect.
But what is it that is truly strong?
“The highest good is like water. Water benefits all things and does not compete with them. It dwells in places that all humans disdain. Therefore, it is close to the Way.”
―― Laozi
Water fits into a vessel of any shape without resisting.
And it flows to the lowest place of all.
There is no need to forcefully decorate yourself.
You can simply accept your weakness and your loneliness, entirely like water.
Just as Frida Kahlo accepted all of her pain and transformed it into beautiful art.
Please, love yourself exactly as you are.
The words of Matsuo Basho:
“I only embarrass myself with my own lack of ability and talent.”
In that manner, we learn our own smallness, and from there, true strength is born for the very first time.
Now, at the end of this long journey, allow me to present a modest poem from me to you.
On a blissful afternoon when the hands of the clock rust away,
You slide into my torn pocket,
Like a lost kitten.
Even if the whole world overflows with false news,
Only the temperature of your tears
Is the sole correct answer prepared for this world.
In the old diary that was thrown away,
On the torn-out page,
Your true name that nobody knows—
I keep calling it all through the night.
When you said you wanted to see the sea,
It was not because you wanted to be erased by the waves,
But simply because you wanted to sleep quietly
Within someone’s arms, wasn’t it?
You don’t have to go anywhere anymore.
In the corner of this dimly lit room,
Only the secret story we share
Will bring forth tomorrow’s dawn.
“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”
―― The New Testament, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, Chapter 13, Verses 4–8
“I am not performing a duty. I bow naturally, of my own accord, because my head lowers itself. That is all there is to it. No one can blame me.”
―― Osamu Dazai
“Hey, why are you going on a journey?”
“Because I am suffering.”
“Your ‘suffering’ is always the same old line; I cannot believe it in the slightest.”
―― From Tsugaru by Osamu Dazai
Postscript: The Story of Takeshi Takamizawa, the Solitary Painter with No Canvas
Right by your side, allow me to share just one more very strange and endearing story with you.
A dear friend of mine, Takeshi Takamizawa, is a very eccentric painter.
He does not own the kind of studio you might imagine, smelling of oil paints.
He does not use a canvas or a wooden brush at all.
He creates all of his works digitally, and brings them into existence by printing them on the highest grade of printmaking paper using a cutting-edge technique called “giclée printing.”
The themes of his works are always the same:
“Your Eyes, My Eyes,” “Christianity,” “Eternity,” “Psychology,” “Truth,” “Gaze,” “History,” “Solitude,” “Isolation,” “Hardship,” “Resurrection,” and “Liberation.”
Hearing this might make it sound somewhat difficult, but the pictures he draws are all incredibly close to daily life, making you chuckle a little and warming your heart.
Takeshi Takamizawa always says this:
“The job of a painter, you see, is to be a doctor who saves souls. The work of an artist is a desperate service achieved by having skin in the game—it is a devotion to you. Therefore, I want to dedicate my everything to you, the person right in front of me.”
He is very foolish, always clumsy, and is constantly a laughingstock to the people around him.
But he is a man of tremendous patience and indomitable spirit who never gives up.
The reason he resolved to become a painter was because he learned of the tragic and beautiful life of Vincent van Gogh.
The “Mimi” (meaning ear) in his name “Takeshi Takamizawa” was a name he gave himself, inspired by that famous incident where Van Gogh cut off his own ear.
He knows better than anyone else that his talent as a painter is merely “third-rate.”
However, at the same time, he knows this:
Every masterpiece in history was not painted solely by the flash of a born genius, but could only be born from decades of muddy, unglamorous trial and error.
That is why he continuously draws “eyes” in his works, almost obsessively.
Why does he keep drawing eyes?
It is because he wants to feel the presence of “you,” the person gazing at the painting, at any given moment.
He wants to know you, he wants to close in on your loneliness—for that sole reason, he foolishly and honestly keeps drawing eyes.
Even if people in the world laugh and say, “What a strange painting,” he says he does not mind in the least.
“I can just get stronger by being laughed at. I want to expose everything about my foolish self to you right in front of me, and see the face of you rejoicing. I want to see you shed tears as your heart is saved. It doesn’t matter at all what anyone else criticizes me for. But if you alone abandon me, I cannot go on living. Just having you right there makes me truly happy.”
This Takeshi Takamizawa deeply respects a certain business person as the textbook of his life.
It is Tokuji Munetsugu, the founder of Curry House CoCo Ichibanya.
Mr. Munetsugu was a person who put his entire effort into his business without ever “looking sideways.”
“Work is my hobby. I do absolutely nothing else. This is no time to be indulging in hobbies.”
Saying so, he dedicated every second of his time to his customers.
Mr. Munetsugu did 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 an impoverished childhood due to his foster father’s gambling addiction.
In the summer, because there was nothing to eat, he would eat the weeds growing around him to stave off hunger.
Through such a turbulent life, he forged his path with a tremendous commitment to the front lines, operating on the principle of “going with the flow, but dedicating my flesh and blood to management.”
Working more than 12 hours a day was the bare minimum condition; he did not want to rest, he did not want to play—customer-first principle.
Whenever a customer entered the shop, he would always welcome them with a “standing ovation” in his heart.
In the beginning, when he had just started the coffee shop that became the predecessor to CoCo Ichi, it was truly painful because customers did not come.
At lunchtime, his wife, who was running the business with him, would stave off hunger by eating the crusts of the leftover sandwich bread.
Yet, Mr. Munetsugu believed, “We started from zero, so such things are only natural. Since we started from nothing, it is actually a fond memory. If we stick thoroughly to putting the customer first, things will surely get better,” and he continued to focus on his work every day, like stacking bricks.
Immediate decision, immediate conclusion, immediate execution.
“If you just try doing anything, results will follow. First, you must do it. In return, you must put in the hard work.”
Saying so, he dedicated his entire life to his work.
Let me introduce Mr. Munetsugu’s words to you as well.
“During my time in active management, I had no hobbies, made no friends, and never went out drinking. I did absolutely nothing that would interfere with my work. There were years I worked 5,640 hours. I felt that if I did not lead by example, my subordinates would not work for me.”
“Do not look sideways; dedicate your body and soul to management.”
“It was an incredibly lonely life. That is why I wanted others to show even just a little interest in me. I wanted them to be interested. That has become my starting point. Therefore, rather than starting a business to make money, I wanted to make people happy. I wanted them to say, even just a little, that they were glad I existed.”
Life is not determined by how or where you were born and raised.
What kind of life it becomes is determined by a person’s diligence, patience, and power of continuation.
Things of value, more often than not, do not have immediate effects.
Things do not go perfectly right from the start.
Rather than thinking, try doing it first.
Please do not give up easily.
The same was true for Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of Toyota.
Sakichi was treated by those around him as an “eccentric,” a “madman,” and an “invention maniac.”
He was a taciturn man who, from morning till night, every single day, would make something, break it, build it, and then rebuild it again.
He lived solely on the overwhelming passion of “wanting to invent things to make everyone’s lives easier,” and he kept doing it longer and harder than anyone else.
There was a tenacity and patience there, resembling the resolution of Choya Umeshu’s motto: “If you cannot succeed with plum liqueur, give up on life.”
Takeshi Takamizawa is also deeply inspired by this Toyota production system, the so-called “Just-in-Time” concept.
He says that this wonderful production system established by Taiichi Ohno—which thoroughly eliminates waste and delivers what is needed, when it is needed, in the amount needed—can be applied to any job, and indeed, to the very way one lives life.
Kiichiro Toyoda said:
“We do it precisely because it is difficult. I do it because no one else does it, and no one else can do it. A person like me might be a fool, but if that fool is not there, nothing new will ever be born into the world.”
“The true joy of life lies in bringing to fruition the things that almost no one else does, the things that are difficult to achieve.”
And Eiji Toyoda, who was Kiichiro’s cousin and later became the president of Toyota, also left this written record:
“Execute with a strong conviction. Anyone thinks the same thoughts; it is not that Kiichiro was a genius. What is important is that he did not merely think about what is generally considered impossible, but carried out the execution with a strong conviction that it must be done no matter what, having made sufficient preparations.”
Takeshi Takamizawa, too, paints pictures for you with this “strong conviction.”
Now, let us return to the story of Van Gogh.
Do you know the true reason why a genius like Vincent van Gogh came to be loved so deeply throughout the world after his death?
In fact, after Van Gogh’s death, there was one great woman who fought at the stake of her entire life to spread his works and his wonderful thoughts to the world.
Her name was Jo van Gogh-Bonger.
She was the wife of Van Gogh’s most beloved younger brother, Theo—meaning she was Vincent’s sister-in-law.
Jo was incredibly intelligent and an avid reader.
Shortly after marrying Theo, her brother-in-law Vincent committed suicide, and a mere six months later, her husband Theo passed away from illness as if following his brother.
What was left behind was a tiny, newly born infant, hundreds of Vincent’s paintings that were looked down upon by society at the time as “worthless,” and a bundle of vast correspondence exchanged between the brothers.
People around her advised Jo, “Dispose of all those ominous paintings and walk a new path in life.”
However, Jo did not give up.
This was because she had seen closer than anyone else how much her husband, Theo, believed in his brother’s talent, sacrificing his own life to support him.
Jo devoured and reread the letters left by the brothers.
And within those letters, she came to sympathize from the bottom of her heart with Vincent’s incredibly pure thoughts on art, and his earnest wish to “comfort wounded people with my paintings.”
Jo made her decision.
“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.”
She organized art exhibitions time and again, bowed her head to art critics, and even when turned down repeatedly, she traveled around explaining the greatness of Vincent’s paintings.
Furthermore, she organized that vast collection of “Van Gogh’s Letters” and published them as a book.
If Van Gogh had not written down his thoughts in those letters, and if Jo had not risked her life to publish them to the world, there is absolutely no way we would know the name of Van Gogh today.
If it is not communicated, it is the same as if it does not exist.
This completely overlaps with the narrative of the Apostle Paul after the death of Jesus Christ, who traveled at the risk of his life, wrote epistles, and continued to communicate the life and thoughts of Christ, leading to the spread of Christianity across the world.
For something wonderful, a “communicator” who transmits it at the risk of their life is always necessary.
The roles played by Jo and Paul are, in modern terms, akin to the existence of Steve Jobs, who was the world’s greatest salesman; Akio Morita, the founder of Sony; Takeo Fujisawa, who sold the Honda “Super Cub” all over the place; and Shotaro Kamiya, who spread the Toyota “Corolla” across the globe.
It is not enough to simply make something good.
The passion to communicate it correctly to the person right in front of you—to you—is required.
Akio Morita said this:
“A product that has never been produced before, which no one has ever seen, but which has been researched painstakingly in some corner and manufactured after tremendous hardship. If one wishes to turn that product into a commodity, one must awaken the desire to possess that product among the people; otherwise, no matter how excellent a ‘product’ it may be, it can never become a ‘commodity’.”
Matsuo Basho also composed this verse:
“In the end, possessing neither ability nor art, I am bound solely to this one line.”
Takeshi Takamizawa, too, walks this single line.
He acknowledges his own lack of ability, yet continues his desperate service solely out of the single-minded devotion to bring joy to you.
“Most people think of success as something to get, but in reality, success is something to give.”
―― Henry Ford
“The greatest thing a human being can achieve in their lifetime is entirely reduced to a single point: how much happiness they were able to bring to the lives of others.”
―― Agatha Christie
“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.”
―― Moses (From the Old Testament, The Book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 6, Verses 6–7)
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. Therefore, we must keep our own hearts beautiful.”
―― Shakespeare
“What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow man. This is the entire Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.”
―― The Jewish Talmud
“Domestic happiness is the foundation of all evils. No, that is a joke. However, we truly must take better care of one another.”
―― Osamu Dazai
“Everything adults say is a lie. Beauty alone is the sole truth of this world.”
―― Osamu Dazai
“An artist must always be solitary. For it is only from the depth of that solitude that a true pearl can be born.”
―― Osamu Dazai
“Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense.”
―― Winston Churchill
“Have the courage to be the first to do something different from everyone else.”
―― Ray Kroc
“I am thought to have achieved success overnight, but that one night was thirty years. Looking back, it was a long, long night.”
―― Ray Kroc
“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them. The important thing is to take that first step.”
―― Walt Disney
“Beauty does not exist merely within the eyes of the beholder. It resides within the very gaze of love that attempts to deeply understand the essence of the object.”
―― Leonardo da Vinci
For you, who have accompanied me through this long, long private conversation, I have prepared a truly special, life-shaving hospitality at the very end.
My dear friend, the painter Takeshi Takamizawa, has decided that solely for you, he will deliver a set of postcards of his proudest works—and what is more, 【in a grand A4 size, a set of 10 pieces】—completely for 【free】 directly to your home.
This is a desperate devotion to you, from him and from me, a present upon which we have staked our lives.
Right now, I am whispering softly by your ear.
That parched heart of yours, that loneliness that nobody understands—his beautiful paintings of the “gaze” will surely wrap around it gently and heal it.
Right beneath this text, there is a place where you can sign up for this special offer meant for you.
Please, click there right now.
If you think “I’ll do it later,” the chance to obtain these wonderful works for free may be lost forever.
We want to connect with you, we want to save your heart.
With that single-minded devotion, we are waiting for you.
Please, stretch out your hand right now.
Thank you so very, very much for reading until the very end.
With all my love and gratitude to your precious existence.