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In this piece I imply Tokyo Japan today a
half century after the loss of the War. I express a Shangri-la as both
an image of paradise in my tradition and, an image of dream land that
we have been chasing after since the huge loss of the War. The left side
of the turtle is the image of paradise on earth in our tradition, and
the right side is the image of what we have been chasing after , the image
of Tokyo Japan today. I would like to compare the dream land images of
tradition and the reality in Tokyo now.
On the left side of the turtle there is a beautiful image of paradise
in our tradition. In my culture, it is said that there is a sort of paradise
on earth turtle, Houraisan(Shangri-La), in which people have immortal
happy lives living in a nice hut in beautiful nature; high mountains,
clear springs, sacred plants (pine , bamboo and Plum and cherry blossoms)
, and a lucky pair of animals ; turtle and crane. An old woman sweeps
bad lucks away with a broom and an old man gather good lucks with a rake.
The old couple lives happily forever in a beautiful balanced nature.
On the other hand (on the other side of the turtle), after we experienced
two nuclear bombs and terrible loss in our land, we started chasing after
something else, materialism, blindly and desperately, believing that is
the way to reach the dream world. And now there are full of technology,
convenient fast trains and air plane, Space Shuttle, and sky high Tokyo
tower celebrating a half century anniversary. And the old man represents
the issue of aging society. The grandfather of the immortal couple in
Shangri-La, who should have experienced and suffered the War, is dancing
on the top of Tokyo Tower smiling. Is he teasing us about how far away
from our own tradition we have come or Is he congratulating our great
survivals and achievement??
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