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Public opinion

2010/07/22 UP DATE #004

Ryuichi Sakamoto x Reiko Yuyama Public opinion

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Chapter 13
"When will Japan become an adult?"

Sakamoto: I have a travel-friendly French friend who lives in NY and he works for the United Nations, but he says, "There is no country where you can spend as much money as Japan and get the luxury that no other country can afford." .. The price is very clear no matter which country you go to, but in Japan you can get a priceless one.

Yuyama: Even for French cuisine, French food in Tokyo will surprise foreign gourmets. I went with Mr. Sakamoto long ago, Quintessence(*1) To the British dilettante(*2) When I brought in a contemporary artist, it seemed silly at first, but as the course progressed, he said, "What's this! What's going on in Tokyo!" ..

Sakamoto: That French friend would go all the way to Niigata to eat rice (laughs).

Yuyama: It's a world-class gourmet food. Nowadays, such behavior is commonplace for gourmets. Speaking of which, sake seems to be a trend among those people.

Sakamoto: I am accustomed to traveling, hedonistic, and I can go anywhere with ease in search of various pleasures in the world. It's typical, "Sheltering Sky"(*3) of Paul Balls(※Four) It was something like that. Bring 20 Louis Vuitton bags and go anywhere. America in the 20's "Glorious Gatsby"(※Five) In that era, you were going around the world looking for something that you couldn't buy with money. Maybe I'm going with a frivolous motive. There were just a handful of such intellects in America.

Yuyama: Is there such a person in Japan?

Sakamoto: Speaking of something Jiro Hakushu(*6) Although there are few names in the United States, there are still hundreds and thousands of people like him. I'm in France and England. So, there are only one person in Japan... (laughs). In the old days, artists came out of that level. Beatnik(*7) of William Burrows(*8) Because the house was rich.

Yuyama: That's right. While doing such a mess, I was biting my parent's snake.

Sakamoto: You are rich before the war. Therefore, if the times are different, it will be the world of "brilliant Gatsby". You’re so smart. Japan was still in the Meiji and Taisho eras before the war, but it was gone after the war.

Yuyama: When I think about it after the war, I feel that I recovered it a little during the bubble era. For example, when it comes to wine, there is a place where there is now because there were a lot of people who swallowed expensive wine at that time. That's true for music, isn't it? All the minor music from all over the world was introduced to Japan.

Sakamoto: so. I told you before(*9) I'm quite a bubble affirmative, and I think it was good that there was a short bubble.

Yuyama: At that time the Japanese experienced various pleasures and real things.

Sakamoto: That being said, that is done in hundreds and hundreds of years, whether in the United States or France. In its history, the wealth accumulated as a great power has been robbed from all over the world and put it in the museum.

Yuyama: With aesthetic sense for generations.

Sakamoto: On the other hand, Japan often went up to that level in a short period of 10 years (laughs).

Yuyama: Perhaps the diligence originally possessed by the Japanese has come into play. I played very hard. It's not a cool attitude for play.

Sakamoto: Are you a geek with a good meaning, or you want knowledge? Imagine something similar Meiji Restoration(※Ten) I wonder if it happened at that time. Introducing new things at a tremendous speed. At first, I'm still wearing the top and bottom (Kamishimo), but in about the 4th year of the Meiji era, everything changed to dresses. That is true even after the war. As soon as I lost, I became like an "American long lived", and I said that there was no discipline. If you say diligence, you might be diligent (laughs).

Yuyama: It may be a physical sensation such as "The tsunami came and the village was destroyed. Well, there are a lot of earthquakes and floods, and scrap and builds are ingrained.

Sakamoto: Japanese people are immune to that. It's okay if everything is burnt down, it's okay. I should build it again (laughs). Once invaded in Europe, it would be difficult. The stone city of that time remains with the wound to this day. On the other hand, Germany was a bit like Japan and had been completely bombed, so it had to be rebuilt from scratch.

Yuyama: I feel that kind of atmosphere in Berlin. There was a renewed feeling that I would like to start from here, and on the contrary, I felt that people from other countries could easily start various things. You don't have to give up on the strong culture rooted in the land like London or Paris. All European artists have a base in Berlin, right? I think that there is also a breakthrough in the revitalization of Europe, which has matured in old times.

Sakamoto: After all Europe is an adult. It continues to fall over a great amount of time (laughs), but he is showing the strength of an adult that does not end easily (laughs). It doesn't end gently. Spain has become tolerant of other cultures because it is in pain. Age of Discovery(*11) I conquered the Americas, but I've been a loser for over 200 years since I was taken over by England.

Yuyama: Even though he continues to lose, his strength continues to be unexpectedly high in pride.

Sakamoto: I think I've become tolerant of other cultures and people because of the pain of losing teams. I've been learning for hundreds of years, learning and becoming an adult. I don't think it's enough, in Japan.

Yuyama: You are not good at living in good spirits while holding negative emotions. I'll get to the car right away. Cat bug.

Sakamoto: Japanese "Tsurezusa"(*12) And Sen no Rikyu(※13) I wonder why there was something deeper and deeper, but why did it become such a child culture? After all, it was reset at the Meiji Restoration, reset at the end of the war, and re-learned American culture from a minus less than zero, and finally I came here.

Yuyama: You stopped being an adult once. At the time of the Meiji Restoration, for a moment at Yukichi Fukuzawa, Independence(※14) I had the spirit of.

Sakamoto: Japan had been an adult culture for a long time, but I wondered if I was in the upper grades of elementary school after resetting twice and starting with a baby. Even so, there are some people who say, “I'm going to get better” (laughs). I think Japan is still in that stage.

Continue to the next chapter ...

(*1) Tokyo French in Shirokanedai. In the "Michelin Guide Tokyo", it has received a three-star rating. Yuyama-san is one of my favorite restaurants.
See Chapter 2 for details.
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(*2) Someone who enjoys art and learning for himself, not as a job. To put it plainly, it is also a maniac or an otaku.

(*3) British movie released in 1990. Immediately after World War II, an exotic love story begins when a composer's husband and a playwright's wife, who are stuck in marriage and life, visit North Africa. Ryuichi Sakamoto was in charge of music.
(⇒ Click here for details)

(※Four) American composer and writer. Beat generation The core existence of. Representative works include "Sheltering Sky" and "Let it rain." Born in a wealthy family as a son of a dentist, he left home at the age of 21 and moved to Paris, where he has been wandering around South America and South Asia to pursue creative activities.

(※Five) An American movie released in 1974. F. Scott Fitzgerald Novel. "Great Gatsby" It is a movie. The failure is depicted from the glory traced by the main character, Gatsby, who fell in love with a woman of different gender. The American Dream was embodied, and was prosperous and drunk mainly in the eastern cities. Jazz age You can see the state of America in the 1920s, which is called.
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(*6) Japanese bureaucracy, businessman.
Wearing jeans for the first time in Japan, has recently been called "the coolest man in Japan" and is drawing attention. Liberalist. After the war Yoshida Shigeru Close to the prime minister GHQ He said that he was the only Japanese who would not be obedient.
(⇒ Click here for details)

(*7) A group that stands out in the American literary world from 1955 to 1964, or a collective term for its activities. Generally, it refers to the generation born between 1914 and 1929. Also known as beat generation.
(⇒ Click here for details)

(*8) American novelist. One of the beat generations of the 1950s. In the 1960s JG Ballad By New Wave SF Is praised as the shining star of. Also Laurie Anderson Or Kurt Cobain It was also respected by others. In my private life, I put my pinky on the hit by my boyfriend, William Tell He was a person who had no shortage of topics, such as playing pretend and shooting his wife. .
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(*9) See Chapter 2 for details.
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(※Ten) A series of reforms that accompany the change of the Emperor's parental system by the Meiji government from the overwhelming movement against the Edo Shogunate around 1968.
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(*11) European colonial expansion into the Indian, Asian and American continents from the mid-15th century to the mid-17th century.
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(*12)) At the end of the Kamakura period Yoshida Kaneyoshi An essay written by. A collection of essays that I say now.
It is famous for writing "If you go to the day-lighting stones before it becomes dull, and write down the good things that move to your heart, there's no reason to be crazy".
Seishonagon "Pillow Soshi", Duck It is regarded as one of Japan's three essays along with "Hojoki".
(⇒ Click here for details)

(※13) Tea master of the Sengoku period and the Azuchi-Momoyama period. He is known as the perfecter of wabi-cha, which cuts down on nothing and creates tension.
(⇒ Click here for details)

(※14)Fukuzawa Yukichi The educational philosophy advocated by. "A person who has complete independence of mind and body and who respects himself and does not humiliate the dignity of a person is called a person of independence and self-esteem." Doing things by yourself, without relying on others, and maintaining your personality and dignity. Keio University It is also the basis of education.
Fukuzawa has a traditional locker system that emphasizes traditional Japanese family Bureaucracy The model of the independent nation is found in the figure that the middle class independent of the government is leading and developing the nation in European countries. Therefore, he argued that there is "no independence of one country without independence of one person", and it is said that the independence of each person was the aim, and it was a lesson.

PROFILE

Yuyama Reiko Born in Tokyo in 1960.
Publishing and advertising director. Hou 71 Representative Director, Part-time Lecturer at Nihon University College of Art, Department of Literature.
In addition to performing creative direction and production centered on editing, he presides over “Bijinzushi”, the unit that holds sushi, and Berlin is active throughout Japan, including holding sushi at the opening of the guerrilla shop at Comme des Garcons.
Paperback to the book "Woman sushi"(Gentosha)," Club culture! (Mainichi Newspaper Publishing), new book "Woman dressed as a woman] (Shinchosha). Produced works include "Starry Sky Garden Planetarium Africana" (2006 Summer Roppongi Hills Observatory), Maki Nomiya Recital until 2009.

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