Hello.
I am truly delighted to have this opportunity to sit down and converse deeply with you today.
This is because encountering art and artistic expression in your daily life serves as a wonderful catalyst to make your life richer and more radiant.
Now, let us begin our dialogue with a quote from a great figure.
The great 19th-century philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson left behind this notable quote:
“Beauty is its own excuse for being.”
I feel this phrase beautifully describes the relationship between you, who are reading this text right now, and me, as an artist.
Why is it that the existence of beauty alone serves as a sufficient reason?
It is because beautiful things and outstanding works of art speak directly to your heart, healing your daily fatigue and granting you the vitality to live.
The paintings I create are also meant to be a form of beauty that stands by your side in your daily life, existing solely for you.
Therefore, the main character of this text is none other than “you.”
From here on, while centering our story on Toshusai Sharaku, the genius artist who suddenly appeared during the Edo period, I will share with you many first-class, concrete examples of how your life can be wonderfully transformed by art.
I promise to deliver a prompt sense of peace and eye-opening, brand-new discoveries to you.
The Powerful Bond Connecting You to the Miracle of Toshusai Sharaku
During the Kansei era in the mid-Edo period, a ukiyo-e artist appeared in the history of Japanese art like a comet.
His name, which you have likely heard at least once, is “Toshusai Sharaku.”
His period of activity was unbelievably short—lasting only about ten months.
Yet, during that time, he produced 145 intensely striking works, and then suddenly vanished, leaving behind a figure shrouded in mystery.
Why is it that an artist who was active for such a short duration is still highly acclaimed around the world today?
It is because his actor prints, especially his okubi-e (large-head pictures) that boldly zoomed in on faces, captured the ultimate truth of human psychology.
During the Taisho period, a German art researcher named Julius Kurth praised Toshusai Sharaku immensely in his writings.
From there, his reputation spread, and before anyone knew it, people began speaking of Toshusai Sharaku worldwide as one of the “Three Great Portrait Painters of the World,” alongside Rembrandt and Velázquez.
“The important thing is not merely to live, but to live well.”
── Socrates
As the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates says, rather than just passing the days, living well by touching a rich culture dramatically improves the quality of your life.
The special hobby of appreciating Toshusai Sharaku’s ukiyo-e is the finest means to elevate your sensibility to a first-class level.
Collecting art or familiarizing yourself with brilliant works is not mere luxury.
It is a wise choice to incorporate a first-class energy that outlives history directly into your daily life.
The Dynamic Reversal Story of a Forgotten Genius Teaching You Resilience
While Toshusai Sharaku is known to everyone today, did you know the surprising fact that he was actually a “forgotten artist” until the Meiji period?
Awashima Kangetsu, a man of letters and a painter, noted in his writings that at the beginning of the Meiji period, Sharaku’s prints were stacked haphazardly and sold at roadside stalls in Asakusa.
Incredibly, they were being sold off cheaply under the bargain condition of “any print for 1 sen,” which amounts to a mere few hundred yen in modern terms.
No matter how excellent a work may be, it can be treated this poorly depending on the values of the era.
However, a dramatic shift arrived.
In 1910, Julius Kurth published a full-scale research book in Germany, which triggered an absolute explosion of popularity for Toshusai Sharaku in Europe.
When this high evaluation was reverse-imported back to Japan, around the 7th year of the Taisho period, the price of a single print experienced a mind-boggling surge, jumping from several hundred yen to several thousand yen, and eventually skyrocketing to 10,000 yen.
Given that the starting salary for a civil servant back then was around 70 yen, it was truly an eye-opening leap in price.
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”
── The Bible (New Testament, Matthew 5:13)
Just like these words from the Bible, Sharaku’s paintings, which were once sold as if thrown out onto the roadside, became a light illuminating the world once more after their true worth was discovered.
And this dramatic story of revival also resonates with the words of a highly renowned Japanese author.
“Humans occasionally fall into a deep loneliness that cannot be helped. However, that is exactly where true life begins.”
── Osamu Dazai
As Osamu Dazai says, even if there are times when you feel lonely and misunderstood by those around you, that becomes your launching pad.
Do you also have moments in your daily life where you feel lonely, thinking, “No one recognizes my hard work”?
But there is no need to worry.
Just as Toshusai Sharaku’s paintings became a worldwide treasure over several decades, someone will surely find your honest efforts and the wonderful hidden charms deep within you.
Art powerfully demonstrates the hope that true value will always be justly evaluated across time.
The Fruits of Success Brought to You by Obsession and Patience to Break Through Hardships
Why was Toshusai Sharaku able to mass-produce works with such striking individuality in a mere ten months?
At the core lay an overwhelming passion unconstrained by common sense and an absolute obsession with expression.
Speaking of “obsession and patience,” the great innovators of Japan all possessed these exact same qualities.
For example, Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of the Toyota Group, was called an “invention maniac,” “eccentric,” and even a “madman” by those around him.
While being treated as an oddball because he was a quiet man, driven solely by the single-minded thought of “I want to invent things to make everyone’s lives easier,” he spent every single day from morning until night making something, tearing it down, building it, and rebuilding it again.
Why was he able to go that far? It was because of the indomitable power of continuity inside him.
Here, please allow me to speak of a major question and worry within my own heart.
“Is the digital art I draw truly reaching the deepest parts of your soul?”
“In the midst of the intense changes of the modern era, can my art continue to support you eternally?”
As a painter, I am constantly fighting these anxieties.
However, these problems are actually things that can be completely and beautifully resolved by the grand power inherent in art.
Why? Because art is the only bridge that leaps over all language barriers and temporal boundaries to directly connect your soul with mine.
Just as Sharaku’s paintings cross hundreds of years to shake your heart as you live today, art possesses infinite power to erase loneliness and anxiety.
Therefore, I will not stop my brush for you, and please feel at ease to entrust your heart entirely to my expression.
Suffering and sadness occasionally visit a human life.
At such times, it is the art of Mimi Takamizawa that stands close by you.
Transforming your heart from sadness into joy is my mission.
“Having eventually no talent and no art, I simply cling to this single line.”
── Matsuo Basho
Just like this humble yet powerful phrase left by the master of haiku, Matsuo Basho, charging forward single-mindedly along one path is precisely what births genuine value.
The founder of Choya Umeshu also polished his product with a single-minded determination, operating under the resolve of “If you don’t succeed with plum liqueur, give up on life.”
You, too, please try believing in something and continuing it within your own work or life.
There is no method in this world that comes with a guaranteed success from the very start.
However, doing something the longest and working the hardest at it becomes a powerful weapon for you in and of itself.
The Ultimate Art of Turning Opportunities and Crises into Allies to Leap Forward in Life
Regarding the true identity of Toshusai Sharaku, more than 50 theories were proposed from the Taisho period through the Showa and Heisei eras, sparking intense debates.
Today, it has become almost an established theory that he was Saito Jurobei, an exclusive Noh actor for the Awa-Tokushima domain who lived in Hachobori, Edo.
While holding a steady day job as a Noh actor, he threw himself into the world of ukiyo-e under a hidden identity and drew those radical, deformed portraits.
Viewed from the rigid world of Noh actors at the time, drawing ukiyo-e must have been a massive risk and a major crisis.
Here, I present to you a wonderful quote by the businessman Aizo Soma.
“Opportunities always arrive at first either as a crisis or appear as a heavy burden.”
── Aizo Soma
The brand-new challenges or urgent problems appearing before you right now may also look like heavy burdens at first.
However, they are the finest, upgraded “opportunities” for you to leap forward into a first-class life.
Kiichiro Toyoda also said the following when facing the grueling challenge of automobile manufacturing, which everyone claimed was impossible:
“We do it because it is difficult. I do it because no one else does it, and no one else can. I might be a fool for being that way, but if those fools didn’t exist, nothing new would ever be born into the world.”
── Kiichiro Toyoda
Precisely because no one else is doing it, it is worth it for you to do it.
Because Toshusai Sharaku took the “foolish challenge” of shattering the conventional framework of beautiful actors and realistically drawing even their flaws, masterpieces that astonished the world were born.
Please do not fear the hardships in your daily life.
They are nothing less than the beginning of your very own special story.
A Service That Delivers Value to Fill Your Heart with Emotion
Every single work of Toshusai Sharaku was published through the hands of the publisher Tsutaya Juzaburo, the master producer of Edo.
No matter how eye-openingly wonderful a product may be, if there is no one to correctly convey and deliver it to people, it becomes the exact same as not existing in the world at all.
Akio Morita, the founder of Sony, beautifully spoke of this truth as follows:
“When a product has never been produced before, and no one has ever seen it, but it has been painstakingly researched in some corner and manufactured after extraordinary hardship—if you want to turn that product into a commercial commodity, you must arouse a desire among people to possess it. No matter how excellent a ‘product’ it may be, it cannot become a ‘commodity’ otherwise.”
── Akio Morita
Why is this quote relevant to your daily life?
It is because your own abilities, kindness, and the work you handle only take on true value when you make the effort to “convey” them to the people around you.
Correctly communicating good things is the ultimate service to the other person, and kindness itself.
Henry Ford, the global automotive king, also teaches us about the essence of success in this manner:
“Most people think of success as something to get. But the truth is, success is about giving.”
── Henry Ford
Instead of chasing only your own profit, thoroughly think about what you can give to the person right in front of you—to you—and how you can make them happy.
This is the only golden rule for making all things go well.
The Moment the Giants of Business and the Heights of Art Intersect
Here, let us recall the episodes of Soichiro Honda and Takeo Fujisawa, who supported the Japanese automotive industry, as well as Shotaro Kamiya and Taizo Ishida, who supported Toyota.
Behind Soichiro Honda’s obsession with technology and his continuous creation of products that made the impossible possible, there was Takeo Fujisawa, his finest partner who kept communicating those values to the world and keeping the funds flowing.
They, too, were bound by a powerful relationship of trust, just like Toshusai Sharaku and Tsutaya Juzaburo.
In the process of enriching your life, such wonderful companions or existences who understand your value will surely appear.
To make that happen, we must always aim for an uncompromisingly high quality.
The modern genius Steve Jobs left behind this timeless quote:
“Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten. No amount of marketing can turn a bad product into a hit.”
── Steve Jobs
This phrase is the ultimate lesson that can be applied to all your work, human relationships, and hobbies.
Pursue genuine quality honestly and without cutting corners.
That itself becomes your own powerful asset that never fades, even as time passes.
Just as the ten-month radiance drawn by Toshusai Sharaku is piercing your heart as you live centuries later, the things you work on with true passion will be remembered eternally in the hearts of your precious ones.
Continuous Forward Progress Promises You the Finest Tomorrow
Strangely enough, Toshusai Sharaku’s artistic style shifted gradually from the first period to the fourth period, and finally vanished as if his brushwork had deteriorated.
At first glance, his story might seem to have reached a sudden end.
However, both in the world of art and in our own lives, as long as we continue to challenge ourselves, no such thing as a true end exists.
Here, I introduce three quotes from the great inventor Thomas Edison that will shake your soul.
“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.”
“The secret of my success is to keep going after others have given up.”
── Thomas Edison
How powerfully these words inspire you!
When failing at work or worrying over human relationships, anyone can experience a moment where they feel like giving up, thinking, “It’s no use anymore.”
However, right before success is, more often than not, the darkest and most painful time.
Just as Toshusai Sharaku poured all his energy into running through that short period, why don’t we also take just one more step forward in our daily lives without giving up?
“Life is not found within life; true life is found within death.”
── Zen Maxim
Precisely when one is driven into a corner, a true new life is breathed in, and an astonishing path opens up.
Just as those paintings of Toshusai Sharaku went through a dark era of being sold cheaply at roadside stalls before achieving a grand revival as global treasures, all the hardships and burdens in your life are nothing more than foreshadowing for a wonderful happiness.
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
── Lao Tzu
With this simple truth taught by Lao Tzu in your heart, let us make today uniquely yours and brilliantly radiant.
You already possess the powerful strength to overcome difficulties and grasp a wonderful future.
I am always cheering on your steps through the ultimate expression that is art.
P.S. A Humble Confession to You from a Painter Named Mimi Takamizawa
Thank you so very much for reading until the end.
From here on, as a postscript, please allow me to talk a little bit about a familiar and fun story regarding myself, a painter named “Mimi Takamizawa.”
I do not use traditional canvas and brushes.
I create my works using the latest digital technology and finish them by printing onto the highest-grade print paper using a highly precise method called the “giclée print technique.”
My themes of creation are: your eyes/my eyes, Christianity, eternity, psychology, truth, gaze, history, loneliness, isolation, hardship, resurrection, and liberation.
Why did I become a painter?
It was because I learned about the dramatic life of none other than Vincent van Gogh.
My name, “Mimi” in Mimi Takamizawa, is actually taken in honor of that famous ear-cutting incident of Van Gogh (“mimi” means ear in Japanese).
Van Gogh left behind this wonderful quote:
“I want to express something comforting in a picture, like music.”
── Vincent van Gogh
This phrase is my ultimate ideal.
Even if one is expressing something, if it cannot thrill anyone’s heart, if it cannot comfort you, then that work holds absolutely no value.
I know that all the masterpieces of the past were not drawn solely through the born talent of geniuses, but were birthed from decades of trial and error and patience.
That is precisely why I continue to draw “eyes” inside my works.
It is because I want to keep feeling “you,” who are standing right in front of the painting, through the artwork.
It is an expression of my intense desire to know you more and to stay close to you.
A painter is an existence that wishes, in a sense, to be a “doctor who saves the soul.”
The job of an artist is to provide a dedicated service to you at their own expense.
It is an absolute devotion to you.
Therefore, please do not abandon the world of art, and please do not abandon my works.
Please go ahead and laugh at my clumsy figure.
Artists are creatures who are laughed at, laughed at, and yet grow stronger because of it.
After all, it is a dedicated act of playing the clown just to make you happy.
I am a man of unyielding patience who does not give up.
I model my attitude toward my work after the way of life of a certain great businessman.
That person is Tokuji Munetsugu, the founder of Curry House CoCo Ichibanya.
Mr. Munetsugu was a thorough person who looked nowhere else and put his everything single-mindedly into his work, doing absolutely nothing else.
Operating under the belief that “this is no time to be indulging in hobbies,” he supposedly did not listen to his beloved classical music at all during his active days as a manager.
It was a fierce commitment to hands-on management, all to dedicate the entirety of his time to his customers.
In the initial days right after starting the coffee shop that became the predecessor to CoCo Ichibanya, customers rarely came.
Because of this, it is said that he and his wife survived their lunches by eating the “crusts of sandwich bread” left over from cooking to stave off hunger.
Since they started from zero, such hardships were only natural.
Believing that “if we stick thoroughly to putting the customer first, things will surely get better,” he focused on his work every single day, like laying bricks one by one.
Immediate decision, immediate conclusion, immediate execution.
Dedicating one’s entire life to work, dedicating one’s whole life to the customer right in front of them.
This is the ultimate spirit of service that I wish to hold toward you.
Tokuji Munetsugu has said the following:
“During my active years, I had no hobbies and made no friends. I never once went to a bar. I did absolutely nothing that would get in the way of 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 for me.”
“Do not look away; dedicate your life to management.”
“It was a very lonely life. That is why I wanted others to show even a little bit of interest in me. I wanted them to be interested in me. That became my starting point. Therefore, rather than starting a business to make money, I wanted to make people happy. I wanted people to say, even just a little, that they were glad I existed.”
── Tokuji Munetsugu
Mr. Munetsugu did not know the faces of his real parents; he grew up in an orphanage, and even after being taken in by foster parents, he spent a destitute childhood due to his foster father’s gambling addiction.
During his boyish days, having nothing to eat, he survived hunger by eating wild grass in the summer.
He climbed up from a life full of ups and downs.
Life is not determined by how or where you are born.
It can be remade anew as many times as you want through a person’s diligence, patience, and continuity.
Things of value are, more often than not, things that do not have immediate effects.
Therefore, please do not give up easily.
Suffering and sadness occasionally visit a human life.
At such times, it is the art of Mimi Takamizawa that stands close by you.
Transforming your heart from sadness into joy is my mission.
When you are standing before me, I am sending you a roaring standing ovation inside my heart.
I will continue to dedicate my life to a form of art that puts you first above all else.
Lastly, I leave you with the love-filled words of Jo (Johanna van Gogh-Bonger), the wife of Van Gogh’s brother Theo, who risked her life to spread Vincent’s works to the world after he passed away.
“Besides the child, Theo left me another mission—to have Vincent’s work seen by as many people as possible and to have its true value recognized.”
── Jo (Johanna van Gogh-Bonger)
And I shall close this precious dialogue with a quote from Henry Ford, whom I respect the most, which will powerfully support your days ahead.
“To give to one another. That itself is the most beautiful and most powerful promise that humans are meant to fulfill upon being given life in this world.”
── Henry Ford
Just as the Apostle Paul in the New Testament continued to preach love and hope through any hardship.
And just as John Calvin believed in his mission and left an unshakeable footprint in history.
May you, a truly special existence, be enveloped in a wealth of joy today and tomorrow.
I sincerely hope that my art can add the finest colors to the journey of your life.
