OSAKA — Paintings of Mount Fuji decorating a public bathhouse in this city’s Higashisumiyoshi Ward were recently redone for the first time in seven years during a live event attended by around 100 who came to see the specialist artist’s brushwork.
The artist, 79-year-old Morio Nakajima, is said to be one of only two remaining bathhouse artists in the country. The veteran painter and resident of Tokyo’s Nerima Ward is said to have picked up the brush 60 years ago at age 19.
Morio Nakajima is seen repainting a mural of Mount Fuji at the Midori Onsen public bathhouse in Osaka’s Higashisumiyoshi Ward on May 15, 2024. (Mainichi/Daiki Takikawa)
Nakajima also painted the previous iterations of the murals in the “Midori Onsen” bathhouse. His canvasses are stainless steel plates measuring about 2 meters high by 3 meters across. Nakajima doesn’t make drafts. Climbing onto the platform, he peeled off the old layers of paint and used a roller, brush and other tools to create the new works, taking around two hours to complete each of the paintings in the men’s and women’s baths in a single session.
For the women’s bath, Nakajima painted Mount Fuji as seen from Lake Kawaguchicho in spring, while for the men’s area, he depicted the peak from the Suruga Bay side. “I took a sigh of relief. These are my finest works,” Nakajima said. But he continued, “I want to paint (the next ones at Midori Onsen). And when I do, I think I’ll want to remove these quickly, saying, ‘The last paintings were awful.’ It’ll be a repetition of that process until I die.”
Morio Nakajima repaints a picture of Mount Fuji at the Midori Onsen bathhouse in Osaka’s Higashisumiyoshi Ward on May 15, 2024. (Mainichi/Daiki Takikawa)
A self-employed 37-year-old resident of Osaka’s Abeno Ward who came to watch said, “The moment he was completing Mount Fuji’s ridgeline was so good and it really impressed me.”
Midori Onsen’s 51-year-old owner Yoshihiro Nishimura said, “I wanted people to see the process of Mount Fuji rising up as the project approached completion. I hope it helps bathers heal from the day and gain strength for the next.”
(Japanese original by Koji Minemoto, Osaka City News Department)
AloJapan.com