As a first-year high school student, MIKIO KISARA attended a lecture by Takeo Kuwabara and became convinced that he would study at Kyoto University and succeed him.
After losing the psychological peace of his home at the beginning of his final year of high school, however, he disappeared from the lives of his closest friends upon graduation.
Nearly forty years later, in July 2010, he suddenly reappeared before professors, senior government officials, corporate leaders, and readers throughout Japan, like Giovanni or Campanella returning from Kenji Miyazawa’s Night on the Galactic Railroad.
Who is MIKIO KISARA?
My writings have continued to be read by professors at Hokkaido University, Tohoku University, the University of Tokyo, Waseda University, Keio University, Nagoya University, Kyoto University, Osaka University, Kobe University, Hiroshima University, Kyushu University, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Chiba University, the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and many other institutions.
They have also continued to be read by people holding central positions within the national bureaucracy in Kasumigaseki and by people at the heart of Japan’s leading corporations.
Of course, many of these people are my seniors, classmates, or juniors, so in one sense this may be only natural.
But my writings have also continued to be read by people from every level of society throughout Japan, from Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa in the south.
As I have already written, when I was a first-year high school student, Takeo Kuwabara, then Director of Kyoto University’s Institute for Research in Humanities, and University of Tokyo professor Toshihiko Tokizane, a leading authority on cerebral physiology, appeared at the same event.
I went to hear them, and I became convinced of one thing.
“I will go to Kyoto University and succeed Takeo Kuwabara.”
Strangely enough, a renowned world-history teacher at my high school had formed the same conviction about me.
He stopped me in the corridor and gave me a solemn instruction.
“You must remain at the university and support Kyoto University upon your two shoulders.”
Regrettably, however, at the beginning of my third and most important year of high school, the psychological peace within my family finally came to an end.
Those who attended truly outstanding traditional schools will understand what that meant.
I passed that most important year as an empty shell, and the moment I graduated, I disappeared.
Like Campanella, I suddenly vanished from before my closest friends, and no one knew where I had gone.
Or perhaps I was like Giovanni.
Nearly forty years later, in July 2010, I suddenly appeared again.
It was as though I had continued traveling aboard the train in Night on the Galactic Railroad as Giovanni or Campanella and had arrived precisely when the appointed hour came.
I appeared before professors at Hokkaido University, Tohoku University, the University of Tokyo, Waseda University, Keio University, Nagoya University, Kyoto University, Osaka University, Kobe University, Hiroshima University, Kyushu University, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Chiba University, the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and many other institutions.
I appeared before people occupying central positions in the bureaucracy of Kasumigaseki and at Japan’s leading corporations.
In other words, I appeared before those standing at the center of Japan, and before readers throughout the nation.
MIKIO KISARA