Happy New Year!
2020 turned out to be an unusual and difficult year for everyone around the world due to the pandemic.
I had less work from museums but, on the bright side, it gave me time to refurbish Koryuen in time to celebrate its 20th anniversary. (If you haven’t read my anniversary greetings yet, please click here.)
In addition, I applied to a pandemic-related grant funding from the Agency of Cultural Affairs, for which I was successful. This was for the making and posting of videos of my father’s carving techniques, as well as for improving the English text on this website. It was far more than just financial help – it felt as though this were a stamp of approval, giving me confidence in what I do on this site. I am very grateful for this.
I have several pieces of text and videos in the pipeline. I also have many ideas for future posts. To be honest, it is more than double the work to produce a post in two languages, so sometimes there are days without a new post. I hope you don’t feel disappointed and hope you will continue visiting this site.
Finally the plant depicted in the above painting (by Mochizuki Unso with added text in English) is nandina, or nanten in Japanese. Nanten is considered auspicious, since “nan” is a homophone with the word meaning “adversity,” and “ten” with “(to) reverse,” together alluding to “reversing adversity.” I hope 2021 will be a year in which adversity will be reversed and things will get better for us all.
Komada Makiko
