I appeared in this column on September 8, 2023.
I appeared as "the turntable of civilization" in July 2010, when I joined three other blog sites to inform and reach as many Japanese citizens as possible for reasons that readers know.
In May 2011, suddenly, I was taken seriously ill.
When my doctor called me and told me the name of my illness, I instantly prepared myself for death.
The next day, I was immediately hospitalized.
At that time, the doctor told me I had a 25% chance of living.
The hospital was also a well-known large hospital in Umeda, Osaka, but this hospital did not have private rooms.
I could not do it in a large room, fighting to live or die.
The wards were filled with patients suffering from severe illnesses, even to the untrained eye.
Although this hospital is a fine hospital, at night, there was the sound of the Hankyu Railway running by the hospital.
The sounds made it difficult for me to sleep, much to my chagrin.
My work was in Umeda, so I had to stay in Umeda.
At that time, I remembered a large hospital in the same Umeda area, equivalent to a hospital affiliated with Kyoto University.
I had visited there a long time ago.
I called from the Community Relations Center in the basement.
They said they had private rooms available, and although it was a lot of money for one night, the need must be when the devil drives.
I was transferred to the hospital as soon as possible.
I spent eight months in the hospital.
I am still indescribably grateful to the doctors and nurses at this hospital.
Those eight months were like a dream.
Strangely enough, I don't remember suffering.
A few years ago, there was an exhibition of young painters who had graduated from Kyoto art universities at the Station Building Museum in the Isetan Department Store at Kyoto Station.
When I visited the exhibition, I was surprised.
The paintings on display were all very talented, though.
Almost half of the paintings had the theme of death.
Life and death are connected.
They are in everyday life. They cannot be separated.
Standing in front of one of the paintings, I stood still.
I felt intense lamentation.
Strangely enough, I had no memory of suffering during my hospital stay, but that picture reminded me that that wasn't the case.
I wanted to buy it, no matter how much it cost.
But I thought, "I can't live looking at this painting every day..." and immediately decided against it.
It was such an excellent work.
In the painting, life and death were unmistakably present.
I wish the young artist the best of luck on his path to becoming a great artist.

In 2012, the year after I was discharged from the hospital after a full recovery, I visited the Kyoto Botanical Garden in Kitayama with a camera in hand for about 300 days out of 365 days in a year, in other words, every day.
There are four main ponds here.
Many people camped around the ponds daily with their expensive telescopes, hoping to glimpse the kingfishers that inhabit these ponds.
When the kingfishers move to another pond, everyone moves with them, carrying heavy telephoto lenses.
Everyone has spent nearly a million yen on the telephoto lenses alone.
At first, my best friend and I laughed at the scene.
But the beauty of the kingfishers got me hooked, too.
I found myself photographing kingfishers day after day.
I was the best kingfisher chaser in the world.
After all, I was photographing kingfishers even when there was a typhoon, and no one was around.
Thanks to this, I had the kingfishers all to myself on days when the weather was so bad that no one would come.
Because it is the only botanical garden in the Orient certified by international standards, there was no shortage of subjects to photograph: flowers and plants in spring, summer, fall, and winter, as well as wild birds and butterflies that appeared there.
Omission
The blog site mentioned at the beginning of this article has long since narrowed down its focus to two companies and has been sending out messages day after day, free of charge, for the world, for people, for Japan, and for the world.
Just as Masayuki Takayama is the one and only journalist in the postwar world, "Turntable of Civilization" is the one and only blog in the postwar world.
It is unique in its gratuitousness, content, and fact that it has been published in over 100 languages at times.
Recently, I learned of NOTE on Twitter (now X), where the two blog sites are linked.
The occasion of my appearance on the opening day was as per my thesis when I appeared.
I had an unbelievable experience on August 18 on Ameba, which CyberAgent, Inc. runs.
It was so bad that I plan to sue the company soon.
As for NOTE, for the first time, I searched for the company that operates it.
It was a surprise, as those who have read my appearance in the paper will understand.
The owner/founder of the company was a graduate of Osaka University.
Not only that, he had the background and insight to run such a website.
The rest of the management team was the same.
There was no doubt about it!
Omission
The ease of writing and the look and feel of the site suited my sensibilities.
Best of all, the space for a photo at the beginning of the article is fantastic!
I have taken over 100,000 photographs in spring, summer, fall, and winter in Kyoto, Shiga, Nara, and Osaka, and the way I take them.
I hardly use camera skills (I don't try to understand. I don't read instructions at all) and continue to take photographs based on the philosophy that beauty is in the moment, and photography is about composition.
I am the one and only amateur photographer in the world who continues to take photographs based on the philosophy that beauty is in the moment and that photography is about composition.
In the Ameba above, someone or something, in an unbelievable act of violence, not only all of the 150,000 articles spanning 13 years but also countless photographs were lost, or rather, stolen in an instant.
The papers are the lives and property of their authors.
An actual painting by a real painter is excellent because it is the painter's life on a given day and time.
The artist's life is always present in a painting by a real painter.
It is a once-in-a-lifetime work.
The glimmer of the painter's life on a specific day and time is an actual painting by a real painter.
The deeper the painter's philosophy, the more genuine their gaze, the deeper the painting.
That is the picture of a great artist of all ages and cultures.
My photographs, which had remained dormant until I came across this column, can now be delivered to people worldwide in the most appropriate form.
The space for photos in this column is so ample that I would like to publish my article at the same time as 100,000 photos at once!
Quintessential Osaka University! 👏.
This article continues.
https://youtu.be/Onyl4YkYTLY?si=PzpEmvu1BiWvq-ee