Blue, Impression

When I was a boy, my father took me to his favorite beach every summer. This beach, on Japan’s Pacific coast, had gentle waves and a beautiful pine forest. My father loved the scenery.

One summer I had a near-drowning experience. I struggled in the blue waves and white bubbles, feeling that I was losing consciousness and disappearing into the color of blue. Many years later, the waves of this same beach wiped out countless lives along with the pine forest. Only one tree miraculously survived the disaster.

I have often wondered, what color did Van Gogh see after the shot? Did he see the color of the wheat field or the color of an Ukiyo-e? Perhaps he saw the color of a kimono, the mountains, or the color of the Great Wave.

Blue is perhaps the most profound color in nature. It is the color of the ocean and the sky. It can be day or night. Silence or cacophony. A beautiful poem or a requiem. Life and death. Blue is the color of the world’s complexity. It is the space where the stars, night, and the waves belong.