Reading today from something I want to share. The book is one I bought in Japan nine or ten years ago, one recommended by my sister, who also spent a few years in old Nihon. It’s called, Road of the Tinkling Bell: Paintings, Poems and Essays, created and written by Tomihiro Hoshino.
Tomihiro Hoshino is a Japanese man from Gunma Prefecture (near Tokyo) who suffered a near fatal gymnastics accident as a young man, and since that time has been unable to move his arms and legs. He learned during nine years in the hospital how to write and paint holding a brush in his mouth. Mr Hoshino’s simple and uncomplicated work is pure and beautiful, a view of life and its small, common rewards through the pen and the eyes of an extraordinary poet-artist.
Here are his words about a thorn flower.
Both flowers and thorns
emerge from the same point
By and by the flowers drop off
but the thorns remain
It’s like me
In my heart
I too feel a thorn
The book is page after page of wonderful paintings, exquisite stories.
In a later book by Mr Hoshino he tells the incredible story of his life, and in that book, too, includes many of his poems. A poem from his book, Love From the Depths…
(orchid)
My immature pen
Could never capture one-thousandth
Of the beauty of this flower
But I want to keep it in my heart
Along with the affection of “N” who
Labored to raise it
Cut it
And brought it to me
I want it to bloom forever within me
Both books mentioned are available, but might be a bit pricey, especially the second one. If you get the chance, do read or look at anything from Tomihiro Hoshino, an extraordinary man.
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