25th Mar 2013

To the west

As I passed an arcade of cherry blossoms along the Jindai botanical garden I felt an aroma of my childhood as a special wind of Musashino had blown as I drove under a straight passage. Cherry trees were very tall and big. I said in my mind that they were special cherry blossoms in Musashino and thought about my father who had passed away many years ago as his image was doubled with its wind and aroma. I recalled also that when I had been to Tokaidou with my father crossing over Yamanashi prefecture, his favorite place, the vast sea was displayed before my eyes that moved my heart as it looked overwhelmingly sad and dramatic. A sea breeze in Oiso always made me feel a hope for opening up a new future and a sadness of being separated from one’s homeland and I used to come to Kyoto following the path for the east that was walked by king Jakou and in Kyoto, the Kamogawa river made me recall my father. Eventually I felt that my father and souls of my ancestors have always been behind my activities in Kyoto and guided me to open as many as three places in Kyoto to achieve their most cherished dream. Sunset and a moon at night made me realize the arrival of the time to build a new country. Everything has a historically significant reason. Now I would open up a new human history.