“It will take about two more hours for those black clouds to get here.” In Africa, Tetsuji was at the eaves to get out of torrential rain, and he had a small conversation with an elderly man under the same eaves. At that moment he made up his mind to become an artist to express Africa, an absolute foreign country, using colored cutout papers. The sun rises and goes down every single day. It is a rhythm that has not changed since ancient times. The fundamental questions for all living creatures could be reasoned by using the five senses and sixth intuition, which are called instinct. There is no calculation or reason. Like people have a different understating toward one piece of poetry, all the creatures feel and understand the act of living itself differently. Here is the concept of his artwork which is “his artwork needs to be completed with a picture and a poem”.

What Tetsuji is trying to express in his artwork is “ to live”.In the summer of 1990, he flew to Africa saying just this one word “I want to see the lion.” He wanted to see their lively eyes, not the tired eyes in the zoo. He learned the language, walked alone, and traveled with all his senses. The fact that during the stay he found “the color that is there now” and “he had lived in Africa” led him to use the colored paper to express the life of Africa. Of course, it is not only Africa that has life. Life is everywhere and plays the rhythm. Africa is just the starting point for Tetsuji.

“To live” is sometimes strong and sometimes fragile. Someday the youth is gone. However, another beauty is born there. The same is true for paper. Letters and pictures written on the papers that were made hundreds of years ago are attractive because the time has given them depth and they have been able to remind you of the past. However the color of works changes over time, it means that it gets older with viewers. Being old means creating a story. Tetsuji compares a story to a journey and both a creator and viewers share the thoughts hidden in poetry. That is the concept of his artwork and his expression of “to live”.