Yesterday, I went to pay respect to my mentor/teacher and the greatest living Japanese art historian, Mr. Nobuo Tsuji, for the first time in a long while. I brought large printouts of my new works since the beginning of the pandemic so he could take a look at them. He kindly took particular interest in the painting based on my original design for the celebratory curtain for the Kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjūrō XIII, Hakuen’s name succession, as well as the commission painting of a cat and samurai warriors I created for the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the museum in Australia. I had worked with Mr. Tsuji for about three years on a serial collaboration for an art magazine Geijutsu Shincho, which resulted in my 100-meter painting titled 500 Hundred Arhats. He is now 90 years old and has recently had a series of mishaps, including a broken neck due to a fall and pneumonia, but his brain is still extremely bright; he told us about these incidents with his characteristic, high-pitched laugh. I jokingly told him that this might be our final parting in this life, and took a picture with him wearing my costume headgears. It was through my encounter and dialogue with Mr. Tsuji that I was able to start my life as an artist in New York with the clear concept that manga and anime shall be Japanese art that I must study as the basis of my standing in the contemporary art world, which subsequently led to the proposition of my theory, “Superflat. I was truly lucky. We parted with a promise that we would meet again in January at the Idemitsu Museum of Arts for the unveiling of the new Joe Price Collection works they acquired. Sensei, please be sure to live to be 100 years old at least! photo: @chiaki_kasahara_