March 11, 2011: The day which changed the lives of the Japanese

It has been about two years since the Great Tohoku earthquake disaster, and I have spent days thinking continuously about life and death ever since.
I was born in Fukushima prefecture and grew up in Kanagawa prefecture, so Fukushima was like a hometown to me. Directly after the disaster when I visited the disaster area, looking at close ones enduring the affliction, and seeing the trees standing here and there on the horizon, which I should not have been able to see, my heart shivered. Time flowed as though whispering “Hope and dreams, even the will to live is taken away.”

However, taking a glimpse at life and death, I renewed my feeling that I must face life in a more serious manner.

I have entitled the theme of this exhibit as “Hopes”; to express in it, my will to struggle in chase of my dreams, despite the difficulties of gaining dreams and hope, something that I realized from the disaster. Especially the piece called “Hopes” which has the same motif as the theme of the exhibit, is an expression of this feeling as a relationship between man and woman.

I hope my works will give you a clue to think about living with hope in hand.