The BATON series is a one-of-a-kind collaborative artwork that transcends generations, in which the grandson Takeshi adds graphics and embroidery to a hanging scroll of ink and wash paintings created by his grandfather Morio. The blood-red embroidery expresses the image of connecting lives. The winding shape of the hanging scroll is truly a baton of creation that transcends generations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Morio Hamatake (b. 1924, age 97) After the defeat in World War II, he made a living as a craftsman of handmade bamboo swords until the age of 74. After retiring, he decided to make a hobby of ink painting, which he found interesting and became more and more absorbed in it with his natural earnestness. He also attended mounting classes and produced more than 100 hanging scrolls. He painted Yakusugi cedar trees and the Grand Canyon, and won prizes at art exhibitions in Yame and Chikugo (including the Chikugo Mayor's Prize). （He was satisfied with the large number of works he produced and felt that his age was limiting him, so he did not produce any works in his later years. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ In 2022, during the cherry blossom season, my grandpa passed away. He was 97 years old. I went to the crematorium to pick up his bones, which were still warm in my arms, and showed him the nighttime cherry blossoms, saying, "Look, Grandpa, the cherry blossoms are in full bloom. I have lived through four eras: Taisho, Showa, Heisei, and 2022. He worked as a researcher, received a red letter, and the war ended just before he went off to war. He lost his family in the war and worked hard to support his family. I remember him making handmade shinai (bamboo swords) in his factory, which was hot and dimly lit, and Koshien (baseball tournament) was playing on the radio amidst the noisy cicadas. The Hamatake family is a matrilineal family, and my grandfather had three sisters (my mother was the eldest), and for a long time, he was the only male in the family. So when I was born, his first grandchild, he was very happy. My father was adopted, but he died at the young age of 45, so my grandfather and I were the only male members of the Hamatake family. I told my grandfather, who had no son, that I would wash his back, and he took me into the bath and told me many stories about the war and the old days. When he drank, which he usually did not, he unusually raised his voice and said, "War is stupid. But he wrote in his diary that he regretted at the time that he could not go to the war. I was living the same routine everyday, reading the newspaper, drinking tea, taking a bath, and going to bed, and it seemed like a very boring life to me as a young man. I have been keeping a diary for more than 90 years, writing in it before dinner. As I get older, there are some things I come to understand. The difficulty of keeping it going, the awesomeness and determination to just live diligently. Surrounded by grandchildren and great-grandchildren on Bon and New Year's, he must have had a happy life. He always used to say, "Whenever I pass away, it's OK," but he was never called upon, and as a result, he lived a very long life. She was very happy that her collaboration works with her grandfather's ink paintings were displayed in a private exhibition, and she proudly handed out DM postcards of the exhibition to the rehabilitation doctors at the hospital and day services, saying, "My works are on display. I brought a lot of my grandfather's scrolls. You should be thankful to me that I could exhibit them at the museum. I wish I could have shown them to you.
