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5. “The Trip to Stir Memories”

Around 1990, Tanaami began using drawing as a means of what he termed “memory verification.” Each night after dinner, starting at 8 PM, he secluded himself in a room and drew at a low dining table like the one he remembered from childhood. He embarked on this series using 26 × 37 cm paper, the same size as Memory of a School Excursion, an elementary-school work that was his first to address the theme of memory. In this series (cat. 5-13), Tanaami unearthed recollections from deep within and rendered them visible, experiencing a sensation of slipping freely through time which he likened to the film Back to the Future (1985). On the backs of these drawings, he affixed notes detailing the works’ titles and memories associated with them, enabling him to track the timeline and flow of his recollections. He drew inspiration from Yume no Ki [Dream Diary] by the Kegon Buddhist monk Myoe Shonin (1173–1232) who documented his dreams for over 40 years in a quest for deeper self-knowledge. In a similar vein, Tanaami sought to create his own “Memory Diary.”

In 1991, following an invitation from Kiyoshi Awazu (1929–2009), Tanaami became a professor in the Department of Information Design at Kyoto University of Art and Design (now Kyoto University of the Arts), and he was part of the department from its inception. He began spending two days a week in Kyoto, and while his new responsibilities made it challenging to work on his own art for extended periods, the practice of quickly executing drawings as if jotting down notes enabled him to accumulate a vast storehouse of memories. Many motifs from these drawings would later be incorporated into paintings and prints. (N.O.)