Text/Ye Xiaohe
After reading Kotaro Takamura's "Four Seasons of the Mountains", it was late at night, and the noisy city was quiet. On this cold winter night, I remembered the septuagenarian who lived alone in the mountains on a snowy night many years ago, and what was I thinking?
Kotaro Takamura, who had lost his home, came to the mountain village alone, and the villagers enthusiastically helped him build a hut and carefully fenced him against snow. The villagers, who were not rich, gave him some coarse grains, and the parents of the students brought him a few turnips and a few greens to let him survive the difficult days after the war.
And these simple villagers, in the eyes of a certain lady, are a group of people who do not pay attention to hygiene and behave roughly. In his reply, Kotaro Takamura unceremoniously pointed out the shortcomings of a certain lady. He showed that he really enjoyed life here and planned to live there for a long time.
Because the people in the mountains are simple, the four seasons in the mountains are beautiful. As the seasons change, Kotaro Takamura's state of mind is also changing. From the initial disappointment to the final relief, in this process of self-adjustment, he adapted to the environment and learned to live in harmony with animals.
In kotaro Takamura's four-season mountain scenery, I still like to enjoy the winter of the mountain. In the snow-capped mountains, it is silent and lively. Like a white canvas, various animals paint a unique picture with their footprints. The footprints of the hare resemble the Roman character "T", and the footprints of the fox are only one line, like a woman wearing high heels and walking out of a straight line.
There are also footprints of skunks, mice and cats, of all kinds. Especially human footprints, rubber shoes, straw shoes, and even everyone's walking posture can be seen. The author observes carefully, but there is a kind of loneliness between the lines. Seeing this, I believe that the reader's mind will have such a picture: a lonely old man alone in the snow to check various footprints.
From early morning to dusk, eating alone, reading alone, working alone, alone for too long, but eager to meet people. Even if it is not a person, as long as it is a living thing, anything is good. Birds or beasts, as long as they come.
However, it is this kind of secluded life that allows Kotaro Takamura to be undisturbed by the outside world, deeply appreciate the meaning of each day 365 days a year, and have a new understanding of life and death, thus generating infinite power and renewing hope for life.
As Yataro Matsuura, a master of life aesthetics, said, "Four Seasons of the Mountain" is a collection of essays that describes Kotaro Takamura's daily life at the mountain villa, his communication with the villagers at the foot of the mountain, the interesting stories of Hanamaki Onsen and Kenji Miyazawa, as well as his views on beauty and reality, and his memories of the past.
Indeed, Kotaro Takamura is not only a pioneer of modern Japanese art, but also a famous poet, sculptor, and painter in modern Japan. He studied sculpture and Western painting at the Tokyo Art School, and later studied in Europe and the United States. Representative poems include "Daocheng" and "Zhihuizi Copy", etc., and his works have been selected into textbooks many times, among which "Daocheng" has also won the Grand Prize of the Academy of Arts.
The translator, Ahn Su, met Kotaro Takamura in his youth and had a certain understanding of his relationship with his wife, Chieko. In addition, Azu also translated Kotaro Takamura's "Tomoeko Copy: I can't accept it, you're going to go away."
Although Kotaro Takamura rarely mentions his deceased wife who died prematurely in The Four Seasons of the Mountain. However, when he saw Tomoeko's posthumous work at a paper-cut art exhibition, it seemed random to mention: Miss Tomoeko uses nail-like scissors, and the front end is curved. It does not express his thoughts about his wife, but lets the reader feel his enthusiasm and love for his wife through the text.
This "Four Seasons of the Mountains" is known as the Japanese version of "Walden Lake", the book contains 16 full-color landscape pictures of the printmaking giant Kawase Bashui, so that readers can more intuitively feel the scenery in the mountains, in the complicated life, looking for a place of meditation, returning to our hearts, living every day.