It was last December that I received a strange letter. The envelope contained a bookmarker apparently made by clipping a photograph, a handdrawn map indicating the location of a certain used book shop in Hiroo, and the following mysterious instruction: "Please visit the shop by appointment, and tell the owner, as a 'message from someone living far away': 'that ring doesn't look familiar'." The letter came from Helsinki, from artist Mitamura Midori. At the time I read it, I had no idea that it would lead to a daydream-like experience one rarely gets to make.
As I was busy during the year-end and new year season, I only had the chance to visit the shop in February. It was a cold day with a smell of snow in the air, and I was chilled to the bone when I arrived at my destination. "Kosho Ichiro" is located off the main street, hidden inside an ordinary apartment building in a residential area. It’s impossible to find without a map.
I rang the doorbell, and a man around my age opened. In the middle of his tiny one-room apartment stood a reception table and chairs, surrounded by a dozen bookshelves. Next to the table was a glass case containing several first editions of Mishima Yukio’s novels, and about 20 beautiful, originally designed pens. After introducing myself to shopowner Horie I inspected his shelves, while Mr. Horie prepared tea. I understood straightaway that the collection of mainly Japanese modern literature books was of excellent taste.
After having some tea I muttered my theatrical lines while trying to suppress my awkward feel, upon which Mr. Horie went to fetch "it": a large, white envelope on which "Nihyaku Toka ('210 days'), Nowaki ('Autumn Wind')" was written in Mitamura-san’s letters. Inside the envelope I found a Shincho Bunko edition of the book of the same title, stamped "Bibliotheca Mitamura", and a letter addressed to "Ozaki-sama", reading, "My heartfelt thanks for devoting your precious time to my modest little work. On page 161 of this book you will find a message I received. Please feel free to take the book home with you. I made it while being permanently surrounded by a language I don't understand at all, and while feeling grateful for being able to create strong connections in another, the Japanese language. Mitamura Midori, winter 2005."
While feeling the quickened beat of my heart I browsed through the book, and easily found page 161 with the help of a bookmark. It was a fragment of the one I received in the letter last December. Joining both parts together produced the picture of a sparrow in what looked like a riverside scenery. Somewhere on the page I found the strange line: "That ring doesn't look familiar."
It was a pleasant surprise after a highly mysterious course of events. I read "Nowaki" in my high school or college days, but I had forgotten not only said line, but the entire story. Reading it again, I remembered the protagonist, a literary man on fire with an ideal, and how — in an admittedly moving and somewhat immature way — he is battling the arduousness of life and reality. However, I wonder how Mitamura-san could know that I'm a fan of Natsume Soseki… I met her several times, but as far as I remember, I never talked about that. Or was I drunk and just forgot that I told her?
At first glance Mr. Horie seems to be a very calm person, yet with the typical devoted bookworm’s enthralling appearance of someone who is hiding something inside. He told me that he opened the shop last summer, and that he had a totally different job before that. He reportedly started off with his own collection of books. Even though we met for the first time, we got along very well while talking about Mitamura-san and books, and before we knew it about two hours had passed. Mitamura-san sent her letter to 30 people. I learned that one of them liked her book so much that he or she bought something at this shop and sent it to Helsinki as a token of gratitude. I thought that was a good idea and looked for a certain author’s book. The shop unfortunately didn't stock it, so in the end I left with the plan of buying it somewhere else and sending it to Mitamura-san later.
While many art fans supposedly won't understand me, I have to say that I don't have an inclination to collecting pieces of art. Lack of money is certainly an issue, but to put it briefly, I just think that "experiencing" art is more important than "owning" it. The above was a true "experience", and for me it was quite a precious, and tremendously moving one. Part of the "work" was my ability to obtain some of the books the artist had read before, so one could say that her work catered to my desire for possession. Anyway, this occasion made me aware again that there do exist works of art that manage to lock an eternity in an ephemeral instant by giving people a "once-in-a-lifetime" sort of experience of something intangible. It is of course impossible to "collect" such works, but that’s why they create a pleasant sensation that’s probably unknown to art collectors. Maybe it’s comparable to music rather than art in the first place.
Upon leaving "Kosho Ichiro", I felt that it got even colder outside. I remembered a bar in the neighborhood that I used to visit frequently, and even though it was till a bit early, I decided to go and warm up with a drink. Mitamura-san is well known in the art world as a (healthy) drinker. I ordered a Scotch, and enjoyed it together with my gratitude toward that "someone living far away". While browsing further through "Nowaki", I recollected the pleasantly relaxed afternoon, and remembered the books I read and the people I met until now. These thoughts, along with the Scotch, warmed my body and soul, and even the moment when I put the glas to my lips suddenly appeared to me like another part of Mitamura-san’s work.
Mitamura Midori "A Message From Someone Far Away" records exhibition
Time: March 9 (Thu) - April 9 (Sun), 13:00-19:00 (closed Mon & Wed)
Place: Kosho Ichiro
Heights Hiroo 102, 3-8-13 Hiroo, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
TEL/FAX: 03-3406-6645
10 mins. walk from Hiroo Station on Hibiya Line
3 mins. walk from "Tokyo Jo-Gakkan Mae (Tokyo Girls School)" bus station (bus commuting between Shibuya and Nisseki Iryo Center)
Check the URL below for a map:
Kosho Ichiro website http://home.k01.itscom.net/ichiro/
Ozaki Tetsuya / Editor in chief / REALTOKYO