The Sky Tomorrow

The riverbank was overgrown with thick, rank grass, and the flowing water lay there so dark and murky that it made me wonder where it could possibly have come from.
Every time I went swimming, my mother would scold me. No matter how much I tried to play it cool, a thin layer of coal dust would remain on my eyelids and around the edges of my nose. When we rolled the riverbank mud into balls and let them dry in the sun, they would burn just like coal.
We were obsessed with games—plunging little clubs called nembo into the ground, spinning tops, or flying kites high toward the heavens.
I don’t know what the girls were doing; they played together among themselves, so I never knew.
I was made to wear Western-style clothes for the first time when I entered elementary school. Until then, I had only worn kimonos, so I worried: what if these trousers, split into two legs, didn’t suit me? I was always a bit of a dandy.
At a world exhibition in a nearby town, I discovered paintings of Western children. The rivers, the fish, and the boats were all clearly defined by outlines, with colors neatly divided so as not to spill outside those borders. Even the dogs and cats were well-behaved. They looked just like Westerners.
Our paintings, by contrast, had green leaves merging with the ground, becoming one with the wildflowers, appearing strangely large.
I have now become an old man. A gymnasium is being built in my hometown of Iizuka. I had the students from the elementary school where I grew up draw many pictures. I selected from among them, cast them in clay, and attached them across the entire wall of the gymnasium.
My younger successors in my hometown—somewhere along the way, they have come to use the same lines and the same shades as Western children; I can no longer tell the difference. That earthy, distinctively Japanese quality has vanished.
I suppose that no matter where in the world we are now, human life proceeds on a global scale.

〈Message from the artist on the plaque〉
The limitless expanse of the sky. I shall draw my face on the entire sky. The expanse has no limits. I shall put on a big hat and take my dog with me.
I must not forget the tree in the garden. One day, it will grow big. Before long, the wind will blow, the leaves will sway and fly above the sky.
As it is a dream, sooner or later it will disappear. Yes, I will also draw images in the gap between the clouds. They are precious notes sent from now to the future and must not be forgotten.
I, who was born and raised here in Iizuka, have selected some pictures drawn by the children who are also growing up here now and have molded images of their faces and cars out of clay.

Gyoji Nomiyama, who was born and raised on this land, selected from the drawings of children who are now growing up here, and crafted their faces and cars out of clay for this artwork.

This work is a collaboration between Mr. NOMIYAMA, who is from Iizuka City, and elementary school students from Iizuka City, who will lead the next generation.
First-graders in Iizuka City are invited to submit drawings on the theme of “my dreams, my favorite places in Iizuka City, and my favorite sports.” About 40 works were selected from the 1,098 that were collected, and Mr. NOMIYAMA got inspiration from them and created a model with clay. Based on this model, the craftsmen of “CREARE Atami-Yugawara Studio” spent about 10 months creating an enlarged ceramic relief.
For Mr. NOMIYAMA, who has been expressing himself on a flat canvas, this is the first time for him to produce and supervise a three-dimensional ceramic relief.