About This Project

Scenery with a National Flag

In the fall that I received the Nika Award I was living behind the Kodansha (a major publishing company) building in Komagome-Sakashita-cho, Tokyo, and from the hallway on the second floor I retrogressively sketched the garden of Sudo’s house in Hayashi-cho. It was a holiday, and I could see flags along the narrow neighborhood street. The sun was above the forest, and its rays beamed across the upper part of the school, creating the illusion of lightning weaving itself into the ground. At an exhibit, people wondered about the pole having the tip of the center missing, but Mr. Kanae Yamamoto, a woodblock artist, saw six artworks I had entered that year and gave a favorable review in a newspaper column, citing the differences from detailed sketching in the Sodosha style.