My ARTS&SCIENCE – Hiroshi Sugimoto

When I was well past sixty, Sonya turned me into “The Old Man Who Made Flowers Bloom.” I adopted the habit of always wearing this jacket dyed in a cherry blossom hue on my travels from spring to summer. Lightness is my motto when it comes to journeys; for a two-month trip, one jacket is all I need. I’ll slip into this jacket for the opening of my solo exhibition in Venice. Even as I follow the coastline during a shoot in Normandy, this cherry blossom color catches the sea breeze. One Sunday in Paris, I set out to the flea market and purchased a vintage Fortuny fabric. After paying in cash and receiving my item, I walked for a while when suddenly an old lady began shouting and chasing after me. “Monsieur in pink!” she yelled in French. Apparently, she was a well-known local character with Alzheimer’s who claimed she hadn’t received any money. The cherry blossom color certainly stands out.

I wore this jacket year in and year out until, after about five years, I wore it out completely. Continuing my journey, I washed it by hand and dried it in the shade, never needing an iron. As my allure faded, so did the charm of this jacket. It was as if this jacket had become my second skin. Finally, the time came when the sleeves were worn through. No matter how much I pretended to be an artist, even the pockets eventually gave way. It was around this time that I discovered my love for calligraphy. Cherishing this faded cherry blossom-colored fabric, I decided to use it as the mounting fabric for a hanging scroll. I have a penchant for not doing things in a logical order. After selecting this fabric for the mounting, I wrote the kanji characters to be rendered. With a calligraphy brush, I inscribed ‘着服.’ (These characters are read as ‘Chakufuku,’ meaning ‘getting dressed,’ but they are also slang for ‘pocketing money’ or ‘embezzlement.’)

Upon reflection, an artist’s craft is a form of illusion. It’s an artist’s task to fabricate value, the value of ‘beauty.’ I’ve been living while embezzling beauty. So, where did I steal it from? Could it be considered divine, mystical, or omnipresent? This cherry blossom-colored jacket, now donned by Embezzlement, stands in place of my own flesh.

Recently, Sonya has begun reproducing this cherry blossom hue, naming it ‘Sugi Sakura.’ It brought to mind a poignant verse by Saigyo:

‘Let me die beneath the cherry blossoms in spring on that day in the Second Month when the moon is full.’

Regardless of the season, even in the depths of winter, with this cherry blossom-colored jacket, I believe I could peacefully meet my end as desired. It hints at a long life ahead.