On the day of my return, I was sitting in the departure lobby at Kennedy Airport, vaguely reminiscing about the intense 16 days I had spent there.
Then, a happy email arrived.
"Chaos" has been selected for collection at the Minneapolis Institute of Art!
Just as people are led in unexpected directions by encounters with others, the same can be said for works of art.
I thought that this work, which I created in 1983, would decay along with me.
A comment from a certain collector prompted the idea to be expanded to an exhibition in New York and then to a collection in Minneapolis.
At a time when the world is in this state, one cannot help but feel the fate of this work.
It has been 39 years since "Chaos" was produced.
I am now enjoying using my sealed brush. Following on from "Wisteria", the next theme is "Pine Tree".
There is a Rinpa style.

Ken Matsubara

March 2022, early spring in New York.
This season, Asia Week, is when the city is filled with Asian art and crafts.
In these times when the unprecedented COVID-19 shock has made the world unpredictable, Matsubara Ken's exhibition "From Chaos to Space" at Ippodo New York was a timely theme, and his soulful paintings became a hot topic.
I heard that art professionals and collectors who visited the gallery were unable to move in front of Matsubara Ken's Futagawa Hakudo Screen.
Thirty-nine years ago, he poured his heart and soul into creating the complex Pure Land Buddhist painting "Two Rivers, White Path," which depicts a path leading from chaos to Amida's white path, while retaining the touch of his teacher, Inoue Sanko.
The pair of six-panel screens has been selected for addition to the Minneapolis Institute of Art's collection.
With the lingering memories of New York still in his mind, he continues to paint pine trees, following on from last year's wisteria flower painting.
The Pillow Book contains a passage that reads, "A wonderful thing...long-blooming wisteria flowers hanging from a pine tree." The wisteria entwined around a pine tree seems like a woman embracing a man, and in the Edo period it frequently appeared in the costumes of standing Hina dolls and ancient songs.
Matsubara Ken, who painted the abstract painting Chaos, entrusted his paintbrush to pine trees and took on the Rinpa school.