From September 16th to 25th, I visited Paris and Switzerland. The purpose of the trip was a meeting and some preparation for my exhibition at the Louvre Museum in December.
It’s been a year since I visited Paris last time. I was overwhelmed with the water at a hotel I stayed; the quality of water was very hard. After I took a bath, for example, skin throughout the body got so dry, and my face was stiff and cased skin to peel and fall off.
That made me convinced why people apply oil to their body a lot.
In Switzerland, Ms Setsuko* invited us to her home, the Grand Chalet at Rossinière. It was very kind of her that she let us stay there for 2 nights.
We had wide-ranging conversations and enjoyed talking till the late hours of the night. She may have experienced many hardships through her life in high society being away from home country. That is why her stories hit me in my mind.
The great thing about her is that she has never forgotten her home country, and valued rich Japanese mentality throughout her 50 years of life in a foreign country. She wears Kimono in her everyday life, and goes for a walk with her dog with Kimono as well.
She says “Japanese Kimono nowadays is for formal occasions, but my Kimono is for a daily use”. It is true that Kimono was worn as everyday attire by both Japanese men and women in the past. People wore Kimono all the time; even in a kitchen, while cleaning, and doing yard work, for example.
Three days of stay at the Grand Chalet was full of hospitality. The village which she lived in was on a half-way up a mountain side. The life there was so beautiful and was surrounded by clear air and colorful flowers and plants. The street was so clean that I did not see even a single leaf. Each house was full of flowers. It seemed to me that it was like a flower show and they competed against each other for its beauty and their green-thumbs.
I asked her why people take care of their gardens so beautifully, and she explained that the reason was something to do with water.
Because of its high altitude, it rains a lot without any contamination. Therefore, the air stays clean, which makes flowers more colorful. The environment makes people’s mind clean, and they try to spend their life beautifully as well. Everything contributes to create a virtuous cycle.
Where water is crystal clear, so is people’s mind. I was made to see the example of the case.
* Ms. Setsuko: Please look on “Setsuko Klossowska de Rola” for details.
