<\/p>\n
Few years ago, during summer, I was on the way to a caf\u00e9 in Kiyosumi Shirakawa<\/em> where I visited often. I was surprised seeing \u201cFukagawa<\/em>\u201d which was the address of cafe. Fukagawa<\/em> is the place where a movie director Ozu<\/em> Yasujiro<\/em> was born and brought up. Director Ozu <\/em>is a specialism my study. I was so excited to have stepped inside Fukagawa<\/em> town coincidentally where we could find old town atmosphere in Ozu<\/em> movies. As I was not familiar to geography in Tokyo at that time, it was unexpected discovery because Kiyosumi Shirakawa<\/em> and Fukagawa<\/em> were very remote islands in my knowledge. I downloaded the application of geography immediately and visited \u201cthe place where Yasujiro Ozu<\/em> was born\u201d. Large scale condominiums alongside big roads may be different from the scene which Director Ozu<\/em> has seen. But when I saw the scene standing on asphalt road in hot summer sunshine, l wondered why Director Ozu<\/em> seems to be, more or less, close to me rather than historical figure. I hit my realization that my study of Ozu<\/em> started here basically. My unexpected meeting with Ozu<\/em> went one step closer to.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Since then, so-called \u201cOzu<\/em> Tour\u201d was a theme of my studying abroad. I followed footsteps of Ozu<\/em> that a bronze statue of Saigoh Takamori<\/em> in Ueno Park, the Great Buddha of Kamakura<\/em>, Ryoan-ji <\/em>Temple in Kyoto and railroad in Onomichi<\/em>. Wim Wenders, world famous German movie director, disappointed saying in his documentary movie \u201cTokyo Landscape\u201d that there is no landscape like \u201cTokyo Story<\/em>\u201d (Ozu<\/em> works in 1953) anymore. However, I found myself to be connected to Ozu<\/em> a moment whenever I found something unchanged and felt everything has changed. Such moment, Ozu<\/em> works in mono-colored changes to natural color in my mind. But soon absence of Ozu<\/em> touches me deeply. When I come to the calm sea in Onomichi<\/em> where same as that in \u201cTokyo Story\u201d, I can share a look of Ozu<\/em>. And, at the same time, it sheds light on the life of Ozu<\/em> immediately. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSan-ma no Aji (Taste of Pacific saury)\u201d (1962) is posthumous work of Ozu<\/em>. There is a shot of vacant room upstairs after daughter gets married. Professor Masato Hase<\/em> commented that this shot made audiences feel \u201cthe time spent together between father and daughter passed in an instantaneous\u201d. This sense of time (passed in an instant) which applies to my \u201cOzu<\/em> Tour\u201d was emphasized in Ozu<\/em> works by intentional omission of essential scene. It comes from blank space in his life where I had no way to go. I had strange and complicated sense of time which immersed in me with sparkling wave in Onomichi.<\/em> I can express such sense of time with pain or vain only. Ozu<\/em> tour was a repetition of meeting and farewell for me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Looking back when I entered Ozu<\/em> world, I realize my curiosity about riddle of Ozu<\/em> movies<\/p>\n guided me to my research world and his unshakable strength became an index of my research.<\/p>\n My tour for Ozu<\/em> world supported my study abroad life mentally as a source of vitality. When I was tired and frustrated doing my research, I collected my cluttered mind by following the tracks of Ozu<\/em> which remained somewhere in Japan which made me evoke his existence or absence.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Experiential resonance between reading his works and following his tracks colored the figure of Ozu and expanded my field of vision about Ozu. It was valuable experience for me to have studied abroad. Thinking about it now, not only my research but life in Japan for eight years also seems to have been guided by Ozu. How do I inherit his look which passed in an instant? This is an unsolved and lifetime question which impressed deeply in my mind.<\/p>\n I would like to move one step ahead, even if it\u2019s just a little.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n