A reflective essay recounting a personal experience at the Kyoto Imperial Palace and the deep sense of loss felt upon reading the obituary of Shoichi Watanabe, a scholar admired for his intellect and integrity.

This section presents a reflective account linking personal experience, cultural interpretation of Kyoto’s gardens, and the death of a prominent Japanese intellectual.
It highlights how individual memory and national cultural discourse intersect at moments of loss.

2017-04-18
The fact that he was from Yamagata Prefecture, which neighbors my own hometown, was also a source of pride for me.
In 2011, when I was hospitalized with a serious illness, a staff member of the Kyoto Imperial Palace who had read my essays served as the guide leading visitors when I used a short-term leave from the hospital to make a reserved visit.
A few days earlier, I had written that the beauty of Kyoto’s gardens expresses the beauty of mountain ranges across Japan, the beauty of lakes, forests, rivers, and seas.
In other words, I wrote that Kyoto’s gardens are the essence of Japanese beauty and the essence of the culture and refinement that the Japanese people have cultivated since ancient times.
The staff member spoke, clearly as if to convey it to me, exactly what I had written in my essay.
Because it was my several-th visit, I noticed it immediately.
Now then, today something very sad happened.
This morning, I woke up once much earlier than planned.
I got up and read the newspapers.
It had been a long time since I first read the Asahi, but an article near the social affairs section truly left me astonished.
Or rather, this company still has absolutely no awareness of the crime of fabricating the comfort women reports and spreading them to the world.
I quickly put it aside and began reading the Nikkei.
After reading almost all of it and reaching the social pages, I found an obituary of someone I desperately wanted to see live longer.
Shoichi Watanabe had died.
When I had seen footage of him being called as an expert to deliberate on the Emperor’s abdication, I had been concerned that his health did not look good.
The fact that he was from Yamagata Prefecture, which neighbors my own hometown, was also a source of pride for me.
To be continued.