About This Project

Spectacle of Yamato Viewed from Asuka (Nara)

I wanted to paint a scene filled with waves of golden leaves on the Yamato plain, so I searched around for several years. Finally, in the fall of 1969 I encountered a spectacular view looking north from the hill of Amagashi in Asuka (Nara). A closer view to include was a village of Toyoura and a house with a thatched roof. I was so excited to see the house, and I visited there. Over refined green tea I chatted with an 88-year-old man at the house as if we were a longtime acquaintance. The old man told me about numerous old families of Yamatoya, in Asuka, monuments and hidden magnetic stones. The following year, one year after the first visit, I went back to the house with a color print copy of my completed work. But the old man had passed away, and the roof of the house had been changed to galvanized iron roof with a second floor added.