As Mr. Noriaki Kurokawa Died Last Week
(Comme M. Noriaki Kurokawa est décédé la semaine dernière)
Last night Japan's NHK rebroadcast a report, first presented in early 2001, on travel Mr. Noriaki Kurokawa who died last week had made to Russia probably just before the broadcasting.
Mr. Noriaki Kurokawa, the kanji letters for whose surname mean "Black River," was a famous Japanese architect since 1960's.
http://blog.livedoor.jp/spwalker/archives/50716581.html
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He was also a candidate for the recent Tokyo Governor election, in which his old friend and notable author Mr. Shintaro Ishihara was reelected, and the Upper House Election conducted this summer where he failed, too.
When Mr. Kurokawa announced early this year his entry for the Tokyo Governor election, everybody got surprised. No matter how notable and rich he was, Mr. Kurokawa had had nothing to do with politics in the past. Eventually, he got only about 3% or so votes in the election. And, almost a half year later, he died of a disease.
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In the NHK's revived report, he visited scarece remnants of avant-garde buildings constructed in Moscow, Leningrad and so on. This style of buildings in the Soviet Union mostly constructed before WWII, such as a 150m-high radio tower which really looked avant-garde even today, had been however suppressed by Stalin.
Mr. Kurokawa told Moscow students that abstract design set people free (which Stalin probably had been afraid of and hated so much).
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But, the main purpose for Mr. Kurokawa's visit to Russia six years ago was to search for and meet with a Russian lady who, as an interpreter, had helped him in an international architecture students conference held in the USSR in 1958 to which he had been especially invited as a representative of Japanese young architects.
According to the TV report, he could actually find and meet her he had fallen in love in vain some 40 years before this reunion mainly due to the political and international situations at the era.
On this occasion to Russia, Mr. Kurokawa carried a picture of the Russian lady with him in the conference having been held some 40 years before.
When he visited her apartment and was welcomed by her, Mr. Kurokawa found the same picture in a new frame in her room.
Remarkably, she looked like herself some 40 years before. Mr. Kurokawa looked like finding her charm again, sitting near her playing the piano for him as well as probably for a crew of NHK.
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Then some six years later, Mr. Kurokawa suddenly decided to run for the Tokyo Governor and the Upper House member of the Diet, all in vain.
And, several months later, namely, last week, Mr. Kurokawa died also suddenly of a disease while being busy making many TV appearances, though he looked so thin and loosing weight in these days.
His wife, a famous Japanese actress, said that her late husband had said cordially that he really loved her in their final conversation.
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Looking back from 2007, avant-garde buildings Mr. Kurokawa encountered in Russia some 50 years ago seem to have become a key to his later huge success in the global architectural sector.
But, it is unknown what a key to understanding his surprising entry to big elections in Japan in 2007 was, though he had met his dream lady in Russia several years before, to whom he had written so many letters but could not receive any replies from her, an attractive interpreter in the Soviet Union, some 50 years ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kisho_Kurokawa
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This is what I saw on TV last night, namely the Sunday night in Japan.
When I was a high-school student, of course, in Japan, it was said that smart students, in a science course, usually went on to an electric or electronic engineering faculty of a university but some wise students also went on to an architectural faculty, though swotters often went on to a medical faculty.
http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/world/A0858989.html
But, of course, without love and freedom or without a chance of exercising love and freedom, you cannot boast of your success in any fields.
Japanese politicians should find any hidden and significant messages in that engagement in politics Mr. Noriaki Kurokawa ventured into for half a year before his death.
By the way, is there anybody running for the US Presidency risking his or her life and rather taking years or months off his or her life for whatever cause of his or her own?
(Especially, Tokyo Governor Mr. Shintaro Ishihara might need to supplement the death of Noriaki Kurokawa.
I don't think it is cheap, anyhow.
Jesus Christ said not to judge a person from the outside, if he or she always dresses in black; we have to judge a person at least based on his or her long-time cherished wish or dream, such as completion of the avant-garde architectural philosophy.
Or anything else on your side?)
"God did not spare Jews....do you think He will spare you?"
(Gott hat die Juden nicht verschont... Meint ihr, dass er euch milder beurteilt?)