KEIKO KOMA net

9 Oct. 2011

Kamogawa river

As I opened a drawer of my book shelf, an old postcard attracted my eyes. I sent it to my father who had been hospitalized for a long period of time after he had been knocked down by an illness. And after he had passed away, it was brought back to me. So I cherished it as a precious remain of my father. Though I did not take any other of his remains, I wanted this especially to stay within my hand’s reach. This came with a photo of the Kamogawa river. I posted it one day before the Idaki Shin concert held more than twenty years ago. There I wrote already that I felt a great attachment and nostalgia in Kyoto and that I picked up that postcard and decided to send it to him as the landscape of the postcard looked the same as in a photo of my father I had seen in the past. I was sure that if my father were alive he would be very pleased to see that I had built the Koma calligraphy sign board in a land of Koma, under the Yasaka tower. Then I felt that it should be my father who made me find this postcard today as he wished to tell me that he was indeed very happy. Twenty years ago I had never imagined that one day I would come to built a sign board of Koma at Yasaka. Anyway my postcard made me acknowledge that I have been to the same spot where my father used to visit and stand on his foot. My heart was greatly moved and I shed tears. Human links were indeed very mysterious and wonderful. Places associated with my ancestor always guided me to an encounter so that I would feel the presence of souls of people who had been there in ancient times. They were happy and celebrating together with us the arrival of a great moment when the truth was reviving and their souls were resurrected. I recalled in my mind a scene of a poem from my poem book entitled Reika that I had created in my teens, and it wrote that I was walking along the river side of Kamogawa that my father should have had walked along as well. Also when I created another poem that I wrote that “everything has started in May 2008”, through a window of my hotel room, the same Komogawa river was seen. The river-scape of Kamogawa always made my eyes fill with tears and it was perpetuated in my mind. I realized that souls of people were together with me as we were heading for the Legends of Koguryo Rediscovered concert in Kyoto to be held on the 18th of October. I was happy and became extremely grateful. In the night in autumn my heart was very animated and excited to be in Kyoto. .