YUKIKAWA self-introduction First half

Thank you for opening this article.

This sentence you are reading is a translated sentence.

I'm not a celebrity.

You are probably the only one reading this text in the country you live in.

Only you know a Japanese painter named YUKIKAWA.

This sentence is the entrance.

Self-introduction about YUKIKAWA (first half)

■ Summary for those who do not have time to read

• I make geometric and abstract digital art.

• Born in a rural farmhouse in Kyoto, after working as an institutional investor in Tokyo, I am now in the world of art.

• Growing up in the poverty of my home countryside, I began to feel great value for what was left behind after scraping off unnecessary things.

■ For lucky people who have time to read this article

• The text from here onwards is probably not interesting to anyone other than those who are interested in me.

• Supplement 1: In reality, there is a possibility that the article is not interesting for anyone to read.

• Supplement 2: It is a Japanese habit to make excuses for one's failure in advance in this way.

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■ Activity base

I have Tokyo and Kyoto as the foundation of my activities.

・ What is Tokyo?

I asked an acquaintance from Europe and the United States.

"What kind of image is Tokyo?"

"Shinjuku is an exotic city with suspicious neon lights, and it has a cyberpunk atmosphere when it's raining. People come and go systematically at the intersection in Shibuya. Businessmen live on schedule and work hard with ritual communication. I learned that from anime. Isn't it wrong? "

He was from the United States and was very drunk at the time, but the answer was accurate. He may actually be Japanese.

He also said, "I've been a workaholic lately." He may really be Japanese.

From my point of view, I will supplement the characteristics of Tokyo. Prices are very high. The latest US hits continue to play at nightclubs in Roppongi.

・ What is Kyoto?

I asked a person from Southeast Asia.

"What kind of image is Kyoto?"

"Old shrines and temples, geisha, traditional clothing, food and shelter, Japanese spirit. It is an ancient capital of Japan that you should visit once, but it is a little far from Tokyo. The monks live on schedule and pray hard with ritual communication. Isn't it? "

He from Singapore, who replied, was also very drunk at the time, but the answer was accurate. He may actually be Japanese.

He also said, "I'm too busy with work to die." He may really be Japanese.

From my point of view, I will supplement the characteristics of Kyoto. Prices are very high. The latest US hits continue to play at nightclubs in Kawaramachi (near Gion).

The images of Tokyo and Kyoto that Japanese people have are similar to these.

The feelings of the people who actually live there are completely different, but ...

(Although it has nothing to do with this blog, foreigners who come to Japan seem to become workaholic as they get used to Japan. By the time they realize it, it's too late and they will continue to bow even when they return to their home countries. And, moreover, a business smile becomes their usual facial expression. They get a happy life of thinking about a tough work schedule on Sunday morning. I want to move to Florida. )

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Now, let's get into the main subject. From here, I will write about my background.

Some parts may resemble your life, others may be the exact opposite.

The accumulation of similarities and differences in you and my life will be the seasoning when you see my work.

In other words, everyone lives a different life, so the taste of my work changes with each viewer.

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１．My origin : Poor countryside

In the latter half of the 20th century, I was born in a mountain village about 60 kilometers (37 miles) away from Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan, where I lived with my family until I was 18 years old.

It is a very lonely countryside with only mountains, rice fields and fields. There are a few houses, but all of them have rusted roofs and parts of the walls. It is a village where the word ruins is more suitable than depopulation. Even though it is Japan, there is no sewerage system even in the 21st century.

The existence of a dubious hotel (motel) along the national highway suggests the existence of human activities, but I have never seen a car entering the building. After all it may be a ruin.

The work of those who can work is generally agriculture or something similar. Many old men are thin, and there are some old women with bent backs. I will probably be the same.

I rarely meet people when I go out, and sometimes I see big wild animals. My mother's acquaintance died when a deer rushed into the car while driving and the horn hit his face directly, damaging his brain. Deer and bears were symbols of horror for me until I went to the big city of Tokyo. Even now, bears in the financial markets (bear market ≒ falling market) are scary.

It was a countryside separated from the development of civilization, but thanks to the presence of planes (a symbol of science for me) and television that fly far above the mountains, I vaguely realized that I am part of this civilized world. However, the absolute distance between the mountains and the planes in the sky, and the gap between the glamorous images of Tokyo on TV and my real life, made me feel strongly isolated from the world.

I felt that my life in a world that did not advance to the future was the reality, and that the distant outside world that lived in the present was fictional.

This feeling of obstruction is a common feeling that young people in the countryside of every country tend to feel. You in the old days may have been similar.

That feeling gives them vitality for the future.

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２．Conservative and traditional family

Born as the first child of a small farmer.

My family has been farming in the land for generations since more than 200 years ago (Edo period), but their lives after World War II were very poor.

Even after I was born, I lived a life close to self-sufficiency, picking traditional edible wild plants in the mountains and growing rice and vegetables in the fields. In addition, my mother's extreme health consciousness made my diet more vegetarian than Kyoto monks.

(As if the oppressed people stood up, as if the hands of the clock went into the future, that is, a matter of course, I became to love cola, burgers and ramen sold by fat clerk than my mother's traditional low-calorie vegetable soup.)

The characteristics of my family are traditional and conservative, partly because I live in an area not far from Kyoto, and the trouble is that they are overly strict. (My personality is also strict enough to drink up all the high-calorie ramen soup. But I am tolerant of the life of the vegetable plant.)

Now, I would like to describe two people who may have influenced my creative activities.

■Grandfather

During World War II (WW2), he was a soldier in the Army and a military police. Perhaps because of the influence of those days, my grandfather was militaristic and the opposite of me, who is pacifist. He is a strict person, and the last word I heard was "It's 9 pm. Go to bed early!" In his later years he had Alzheimer's disease and the actual time I heard his voice was 1:00 am.

He died of alcoholism.

Although I and he have different ideas and beliefs, I have learned a lot from him in terms of living according to my beliefs.

■Grandmother (greatest person)

She had all the knowledge of the past and present, always kept her mind calm, and was able to make all kinds of sweets, that is, she was omnipotent (I felt that way when I was young).

I believe she could be the CEO of Google if she was born in a different era.

In addition, she was a little strict.

She was good at making me tremble with a horrifying fairy tale (a story of hell in the Buddhist world) and was good at cooking.

Grandmother said while making a pumpkin pie. (Hereafter, summary)

"This family has been around since the middle of the Edo period (around the 18th century). Our ancestors have been farming while protecting this land and graves for generations since they separated from the family of the big merchants in the town. You are the 12th generation."

"We used to be wealthy. Japan lost in the war and became peaceful, but we became poor due to land reform."

(My blood cholesterol level was also poor, so my stomach was beginning to know the value of calories in the sweets she made.)

Postwar Japan headed for economic recovery and development on a macro scale, but in some areas poverty remained.

My family continued to be influenced by it until the end of the 20th century.

My grandmother, my spiritual patron, recently died of pneumonia.

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My sensibility was created in such an environment.

We were poor, so we cut down the waste.

After scraping off the excess and cutting off the excess, what remains to the end is of intrinsic value.

This has something in common with the traditional Japanese value of "Wabi-sabi."

This sensibility is also reflected in my work.

This article has become long.

The current time I am writing this is 21:00 (Tokyo time).

If my grandfather is alive, it's time to order me to go to bed, so that's it for this time.

In the next article, I will write about the point of contact between me and art.