The place where I'd like to set my sculpture is.

I want to set my sculptures at somewhere.
That is not a place where hard to approach, gallery and museum.
It's a park and on the street where anybody can touch it.
At times, it serve as a landmark for waiting time. At other time, people have break time in front of it.
A stone is weathertight.
It can stand any street corner, any time.
This is my ideal way of being my sculptures, like a Jizou(地蔵 or it's called お地蔵さん）.
It is a small statue made of stone at close to where people live.
People get familiar with it.

How is that happening of middle-aged and older.

I read an article in the newspaper that a number of shoplifting of middle-aged and older is more than such young people these days.
According to the article, it's not that the middle-aged people don't have money to buy things.
Some say they want to feel a thrill.
It is calls to mind that sometimes I come across those who become out of control in a train or on the street.
Although I'm also middle-aged, I can't understand their mind.
My image of middle-aged is that physical power reduce, but mind get mature.
What do you think about it ?

Learn to laugh at yourself.

"Learn to laugh at yourself"
I came across the sentence in a newspaper.

I often make mistakes. I was socially awkward from childhood until I was a young adult.
Sometimes I said something inappropriate to the occasion.
Some of my close friends said ( and occasionally still say ) endearingly "It's just the kind of person she is."
There were times when I felt blue, but I decided to feel amused by myself.
Mean while I don't have awkward times now.
So I can realize what high school students say now. There are various students in my class,
a girl who always says extremely negative things, a boy who talks offensively to everyone except his close friends, a girl who never looks directly at my eyes, a girl who just nods when I talk to her, etc...
They must have some reasons why they behave so.
I don't know, it may be due to domestic circumstances or due to their character.
I have tried not to get angry and imagine their hearts.
I hope they learn to laugh at themselves and they will overcome it.

The power of Art.

There are various sorts of arts in this society.
I roughly classify them as: music, stories, pictures(2 dimensional) and sculpture(3 dimensional).
Music can give the biggest impact of all. It has mass appeal.
Next, I think is stories, novels.
Movies have music and stories combined. That's why it has massive appeal.
What about drawing and sculpture? In the modern world, the power of these is less than before.
However, I like stone sculpture, although it's a little bit old fashioned, I love the feeling of stone which doesn't change.
When I see a mossy stone sculpture, sometimes these are at temples or shrines, I can feel the history and value of timelessness.

Secrets Protection Bill

What the government is trying to do is
Hiding inconvenient truths and emphasizing self serving information.
Arresting people who wanted to know the truth and detected it.
They also threaten whistle=blowers, even journalists.
It doesn't say commonwealth, developed country.
Everyone can understand that.

The Japanese government is trying to take away our right to know. This is a crucial moment.

On the other hand, there are many people who are not concerned about it. People who voted the government in in the last election are also such ordinary people.
Some live hand to mouth, the others are interested in how to get money, not reading the newspaper.
They are unconcerned about politics.
They don't think it is their problem.
I wonder if democracy of Japan hasn't become mature yet, because Japanese have a sense that you can't fight city hall since early times.
They don't have a habit of thinking about something by themselves.
They have still believed the government as " They must be doing good things for us."

If I was forced to teach students patriotism, I might quit teaching at high school.

Making sculpture

Making things balances my mind. When I feel that I have an unstable mind, I can calm down my heart by making things.
I bang down a hammer on a chisel.
I can hear the clang of it.
So I'm calmed down bit by bit, and the stone is going to change shape.
I receive no benefit, no offering from anyone.
I just make it because I want to make it.
I think artists are a kind of selfish living creature.

Ridiculous mode.

Japanese high school students usually wear the uniform of each school. Girl students wear skirts.
The length is unbelievably short. Even if winter comes, they wear them.
I ask them "Don't you feel cold?"
They answer "Yes, of course I feel chilly! But I don't wear a long skirt, because nobody wears it."
They are not able to act individually because they don't want to stand out from their friends.
Besides that I guess they make a situation in which they are in danger of being molested.
I hope the ridiculous mode will vanish someday.