Last time, we talked about how "artistry" is hard to understand. That's when I came up with the idea of a "Takuma Medal". If we respond to something easy to understand, wouldn't a medal be easier to understand and respond to? I wanted to do such a social experiment.

The aim of the Takuma medal is to see if the price will rise. Also, is it easy to understand for ordinary people? I wanted to capture the complexity of art, which is why it is so hard to understand.

The Takuma Medal is not a currency. But I'm looking forward to seeing if it will be like Bitcoin.

Money has been in the hands of the state for a long time, but before that, gold and silver were in the hands of the state. However, it wasn't necessarily that way forever, as there was a time before that when it was traded by weight in gold and silver. Bitcoin is widespread, regardless of the country, and there is no state behind it.

The Takuma Medal is a medal issued by Takuma Tanaka. They are given value as money through auctions and second-hand sales and purchases. We think this is interesting. Please stay tuned for this game.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

I've been painting for more than 15 years now, and I've come to feel that art is like air. This is both a good thing and a bad thing.

I've come to believe that the people who view art are also taking it for granted, just like me.

But in fact, this is not the case. I realized that there are many people who don't know much about art, but think it's somehow good or interesting.

There is a beautiful work of art painting stained glass in Ueno Station, the center of Tokyo. But no one stops to look at it.

I finally realized that those who have a strong interest in art, who think and feel a lot of things are in the minority in this world.

There is an artist called Banksy. He creates controversy by painting on the walls of towns and shredding sold works at auction houses.

He's not reaching out to core art lovers, but to people of around it, people who don't know about art but are interested in it.

Again, the question remains as to whether people are attracted to and react to the artistry or not.I found "artistry" to be a difficult and elusive subject.

This is a interview made in September 2020. The interviewer is Mr. Uchida Atsushi, who studied brain science in Keiko University in Tokyo. Takuma and Uchida are the friends from high school

***

Hi Takuma. Today I want you to talk about art.

-Ok…. so do you have something to start with?

Well, how do you think about your works as interior?

-As for interior, I think what is the most important is not to bored people.What attract the audience is little texture on surface. Oil painting is good example.

I see.

-Digital images or printings are too plane. It’s like Udon (Japanese pasta). Taste nice , but not to every day.

So what is important is the misalignment from the norm. Without it, the painting has no attraction.

-Yes, that is what I want to say. Is the all works looks same, it’s not interesting at all. If there is some difference, it will be good. When you see the works of Rembrandt van Rijn, it’s much smaller than what you expected. It’s out of order. It is the difference from amateur.

Is it the same for other classical masters?

-Yes, but especially for Rembrandt . He is great.

-Talking about contemporary art, there are much more plane works, different from master pieces.

That’s interesting. In context of contemporary art, planeness doesn’t matter with there evaluation?

-For example, Wahole ‘s work is plane. But what he did whas not. It had a texture and historical meaning.

I understand. It is true that contemporary art has much importance

I was talking with my friend about the influence of Japanese film director Hayao Miyazaki.

I've watched his movies since the early period. It is true that his anime and his studio, Ghibli are well known and 
influential all over the world.

It is good thing. But on the other hand, more influential he became, more control is needed.

If he express the reality or what he really thinks, it awill produce a big controvert.

As the film industry is also a business, the box-office matters a lot. Failure is not allowed.

So, when the scale got bigger, it's impossible to make something controversial even it is still necessary to attract the public.

On the other hand, there is a little entertainment with it.

So it is not really popular as anime.

How ever, the art is only way which is possible to say "the king has donkey ears". 

Some sexual expression and other social problems are allowed to be shown.
Also people have a lot of things they want to claim but can't because they are restricted by their community or company.
It is a real charm of art to express and convert these things.

Talking about the film, Akira Kurosawa also tried to be a painter at first.

Plane art, picture is the most basic part of all kind of art.
It is a reason why the plane art is remained and succeeded.

Starting from "Human Sushi" I've treated the COVID-19 as a main theme of this year.
And now, I found that this theme lead us to think about the Death, and the opposite,the Life.
We are in the point to think about our view on the Life and Death.

So from now on, I'll work with the theme about the Life and Death.
It is full of mysteries.

In this point, who gave me the big influence is Takashi Tachibana, Japanese journalist.
I read his books in my teenage time, when I was at a fork of life.

The cerebral death, near‐death experience and the mysteries fo Japanese monk Kukai.
These what I've interested and studied till now will be the great source of next creation, too.

Don't miss it.

This is a question I got often.

The themes of my painting is a bit unique.
The source of inspiration is in every where but the main one is the movement of society.
With the studies I've done till now, put these latest news on the canvas.
In my past works, there was a work about Japanese constitution.

What I am working on is a painting about out-of-body experience.

About the process of painting 

The first few years when I started painting I used to draw a rough. 

I mean I didn’t know what to do with the white, vacant canvas.

Now the way I paint is quite different.

It is like Chen Juanmi, a Chinese master chef cooking.

He doesn’t use measure.

Considering the balance of taste while he cook and improved the best.

This is a technique you can get with experiences.

In the art world it is basic to paint carefully with taking much time.

But is it is useless to paint with long time without paying much attention. 

I once heard that's Andy Warhol asked to Basquiat “How long does it take for you to paint?”. Basquiat answered “Short time”

Warhol loved the answer

Professional needs a quantity and quality. So they need speed for their work.

This is what I am trying to master now.