Satoru Eguchi

Water Bless You

I wrote a picture book titled “Water Bless You.” At that time, I had a literary agent. She had been trying to find a publisher for my books for three years. Then I wrote “Water Bless You.” She told me, “you can’t use the word ‘bless’ for water! Only God can bless you.” So then I explained to her about the Japanese Shinto religion, which is a nature god. Shinto believes we all have a god. Stone has a god. Sky has a god. Earth has a god. Also each human being has our own god inside of us. So of course, water has a god and water can bless you. Then she said to me, “it sounds like new age.” Then she said, “well, anyway, we couldn’t find a publisher for three years. Maybe this is a time to terminate our relationship.”

I love water. I understand why I am fascinated by Satoru’s work. It is water elements made by paper, which sounds ridiculous, and his water fountain or icicle, if touched by water, will melt. That is funny. Immanuel Kant said, an esthetic object was only esthetic, or only art, if it was completely useless. “Useless!!!” This statement of Kant’s helped me a lot to understand art and myself. I am actually useless. However, it is ok to still be here. I feel Kant gave me permission to be human being as artist—useless!

Satoru’s art is useless. But, his art is charming and when I see it I always laugh. Laughing is good. Laughing makes life rich. So I still believe water can bless you.

I hope many people will visit Satoru's show at 3A Gallery to get some blessings. Thank you.

—Mieko Meguro