A Journey in Pictures and Words
During a recent stay abroad in New Zealand, Etsuko Kamakura
received many letters and original drawings from her grandfather
Kuramitsu Kamakura. On the following five pages are some of the
pictures Mr. Kamakura sent her, as well as some descriptions of
the pictures by Etsuko. Etsuko is hoping to take her grandfather
to New Zealand in the near future.
Sheep
The fifteen year old girl who had never flown on an airplane
in her life arrived in the land of sheep. If you travel alone in
New Zealand and feel homesick, never mind, there are plenty of
sheep to talk to. No, I'm just kidding. The blank which is made
in one's heart can't be recovered by sheep so easily. So in that
girl's case, she waited and waited for letters from home. A long
time had passed, she felt. No sooner than that, an envelope was
in her hands. The letter touched her heart because it was from
her favorite person, her grandfather. Since then, every time she
opened an envelop from him, she found one letter and one picture.
One letter, one picture--how she was comforted by both of
them.
Landscape
My grandfather, who is now sixty-nine, is a farmer in
Fukushima, where the good rice comes from. When autumn arrives,
the rice, whose heads are bowed by that time, wait from him to
cut them off My grandfather becomes thinner and thinner every
year, but he still walks in the rice field rather vigorously. His
hands are wrinkled and look like rocks, the warm and strong kind.
It is hard to understand fully what he says to the land and what
the land says back in response to him. The only thing I can say
is that we are blessed by both of them. He gets up earlier than
the sun and goes out to see how his little kids are every
morning.
Nomaoi
Once in a year, when the long summer days arrive, it's time
for people to get ready for "Noma-oi-Matsuri." Every time when my
grandfather tells us about that festival, he looks proud of
himself for being a member of his town. Unlike "Neputa," which is
a famous festival in Aomori, "Noma-oi" isn't so popular.
Therefore, my grandfather says that he wants to propose it to be
one of the three biggest festivals in Japan. Thousands of people,
wearing Samurai costumes (real ones!) would gather one after
another, stretching their backs straight, proud of their horses.
The very moment the gun goes off, people hold their breath,
absorbed in the eyes of the horses. As the yelling echoes, horses
kick the ground and the sound of the race turns to applause.
Snails
One day a huge watermelon was delivered to us. It was from
grandfather's garden. Every time I received a parcel from him,
inside was full of surprises. The veggies always looked as if
they were likely to talk. Their shapes were ugly and funny, but
their tastes were beyond description! Then I would remember what
my grandmother said to me one day: "How softly he looks at his
veggies."He must have had a lot of difficulties through his long
years of farming, but he is always smiling so happily, as if
there had never been anything to worry about. I think that the
reason his veggies are so lively is that he pours his joy into
them and they don't ever forget to return it.
The Station
As far as I know, my grandfather has experienced several kinds
of jobs. Most of the farmers in Japan have to find extra jobs
besides farming because they can hardly get a lot of money
farming, despite the hard work. One of my grandfather's jobs was
to clean the station. How many people passed in front of his eyes
over the years? He said when he saw kids getting off the train,
they reminded him of us. Grandfather is like that, I think. And I
used to like to knock on the door of his little hut at the end of
the platform. There, I could find his familar face, which made me
realize that I was back at home.
by Etsuko and Kuramitsu Kamakura
