As One Network

Community Saijiki literary calendar

masterpiece

坂井和貴(Kazuki Sakai)

Every morning, I look at the paintings sent to us from Brazil.
Some days they are portraits, some days they are landscapes, some days they are birds, fruits, and trees that I have never seen before, but the colors and tones are very different from his previous works.



Mr. Iwata, who paints Japanese-style paintings in the community that we have previously introduced in this Saijiki, has been in Brazil since the middle of August. And every day he posts his sketches of the day with brief episodes on his blog.
Brazil, located in the southern hemisphere, is in the midst of winter, but in the state of São Paulo, where Mr. Iwata is staying, many people can be seen wearing short sleeves.

Around the 20th of June, I have lost track of how it happened, but when we were having dinner together, someone said to Iwata-san, "Mr. Iwata, why don't you go to Brazil? Why don't you try to paint what you see there?"
Such a topic came up.
What would be born if Mr. Iwata painted the land and people of Brazil, a country with which the Suzuka community has no small connection?
The idea of "Japanese painting of Brazil" by Mr. Iwata was talked about here and there, and it was decided to send him out from the community.
In past years, Iwata would devote himself to his work for the Inten (Japan Art Institute Exhibition) in the autumn, but this year, Iwata decided to put his hopes on a visit to Brazil.

The mention of "traveling with Mr. Iwata" reminds me of a time decades ago, when we were students in Tokyo and had just gotten to know each other.
He had suddenly disappeared from our lives without telling us where he was going.
In those days, when there were no cell phones or smart phones, we tried asking around for him, but he was completely unknown to us. At the time, all we could do was to fret.
A few months later, he came back unexpectedly, and we all gathered at a small izakaya (Japanese-style pub) to listen to his story.
He told us that he had gone to a famous painter in the Kansai region to ask him to study under him, and that his wish had not been granted and that he had been wandering around. He had been facing a white canvas ever since his early elementary school days, I think it was around the time when he entered an art university and began to explore where he would go from here.


Mr. Iwata arriving at the As One community in Brazil.

Some were concerned about his trip to Brazil from a health standpoint.
Several years ago, Mr. Iwata was diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), an incurable disease in progress. He is unable to move his left hand as much as he would like, and the time and range of movement of his right hand, which holds the paintbrush, is becoming narrower and narrower day by day. Neck and shoulder pain has also become a regular problem. He receives an intravenous drip every other week for treatment, but it must be interrupted during the trip. We wondered if Mr. Iwata would be able to endure the long trip, which involves a flight of more than 24 hours on the outbound leg alone.

Three years ago, when we went to the university hospital in Shiga together to discuss his future treatment and lifestyle
"Anyway, let's eat well and live a healthy life. There is no cure at this stage, but medical science is advancing rapidly. Until then, let's eat well and live positively to slow the progression of ALS."
The specialist encouraged him strongly.
Since last year, there have been reports in the media that bosutinib, a drug used in the treatment of leukemia, may be effective for ALS. We were informed that the IPS Cell Research Institute of Kyoto University was going to start the second clinical trial of bosutinib in April of this year. We contacted them directly and tried to get in touch with them. As a result, he could not become a subject of the clinical trial, but it made us realize that the "time" that the specialist told us about was just around the corner.

No one knows when that "time" will come.
However, I believe that we are always being asked how we will spend each and every day until then.　
What should be the best way for Mr. Iwata to make the most use of his time now?
I think it is out of this that everyone's wish to "bring Mr. Iwata to Brazil" and Mr. Iwata's desire to "paint Brazil with Japanese paintings" came into being.


Mr. Iwata in Brazil sends us pictures every day through SNS.
It is as if we are traveling together.

What is a masterpiece for you?
When asked, what picture comes to mind...
For me, there is one painting that comes to mind.
It is not a Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso, or, I am sorry to say, Mr. Iwata's painting.
It probably no longer exists in this world.
When I was a child, I lived very close to Matsumoto Castle and looked up at the castle keep every day. One day, my family and I took some paints and papers and went to sketch the castle.
My father came along, which was unusual for him, and gazed absently my elder brother and I as we drew .
Toward the end of the drawing, my father took my paintbrush and began to quickly add color to a fresh sheet of paper.
Without a single rough sketch, the colors were applied without hesitation, and in no time at all, another "castle" was completed. I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the work, and watched it with rapt attention.
"Now let's go home," said my father with a cool look on his face.
He was about to crumple up the picture he had just finished.
I hurriedly snatched it away and took it home.
As soon as I got home, I asked a favor of my mother,
" Put this picture in a frame and hang it in our room,"

She said,
"He is following in his parents' footsteps in this store business, but he might have become a painter if it were not. I think he is much better suited for that."
She hung the painting in the living room.
From that day on, that "castle" became Matsumoto Castle for me.

Since then, I have looked at that painting every day and adored it.
Whenever my friends came to visit, I would show them the picture and boast that my father had painted it and that this was how he looked at that time.
When I went to college and moved away from home a few years later, the painting was put away and gone.
It was probably the only work my father ever painted in his life.
It is the one painting that is now only in my mind.
I have no idea why, but it is the one and only masterpiece for me.



Why have people been creating, appreciating, and bequeathing such things as pictures, music, and other forms of art since ancient times? It is not easy to say this is a big theme, but I feel that it is narrow to say that painting and music are the only forms of art. I have the feeling that everything that comes out of people's lives, even their housework and jobs, are in fact art in general.
If we look around calmly, we can see countless works of art created, refined, and polished by people from all over the world, from all ages and from all walks of life, lying here and there in the corners of society and in the corners of our daily lives. We are living on this mountain of treasures.
Mr. Iwata is not the only artist in our Community.


At a market in Brazil. Sketch by Mr. Iwata.


Some people at the bento shop, some people growing vegetables at the farm, the members watching over our children's growth, the mothers who prepare food for everyone every day, the seniors who mow the grass, make repairs, and maintain the living environment, the grandmothers who mend and knit, in fact, they may all be artists in the community.

What would happen if each one of them mastered his or her field in a more playful way?
I am able to envisage that each person's own life itself would become a masterpiece of art, colored with the taste that only that person can bring out and the colors that only that person can add, and fragrant with dignity.
Even now, it seems as if an unknown picture is being painted day by day, moment by moment, on the grand, borderless canvas of community. Well, even if there are some mistakes or coloring errors, it is still me, you, and the canvas, which can be cleared and renewed at any time, so it is easygoing to do.


Mr. Iwata at work on a sketch.

Among such hundred flowers blooming in profusion of artists, Mr. Iwata is one artist who is good at and specializes in painting.
He is scheduled to return to Japan on September 8.
He will spend two months turning the sketches he accumulated in Brazil into Japanese paintings, and will hold his first solo exhibition in three years from November 18 to 27. We are looking forward to seeing what he will be able to express there and what will appear....
Don't miss it !


Mr. and Mrs. Minowa hosting Mr. Iwata in Brazil