Do you know there is an active volcano called “Vesuvius” in the Gulf of Naples, Italy?
There used to be a Japanese painter who was shown to the mountain while studying in Italy.
His name is Ryuzaburo Umehara (1888-1986).
He heard that there is a mountain similar to Vesuvius in Japan, and after returning to Japan, he headed there.
The place is called “Sakurajima“.
After that, Sakurajima was painted as his masterpiece.
Other one of his masterpieces is “the Forbidden City” in Beijing, China.
The era was during the Sino-Japanese War, so it has various opinions as a work painted China by the one Japanese.
By the way, in Fujian Province of China, there is a place called Danxia Landform.
There is a texture that is similar to Sakurajima and the Forbidden City done by Umehara, which was born from nature.
Between “Vesuvius”and “Danxia Landform” were not directly linked as usual.
However, with the intervention of Umehara’s painting, they could connect with the world.
Earlier in 2020, it became a hot topic in China that Chinese poetry was added to the supplies sent from Japan to Wuhan, China.
“山川异域 风月同天”
Translation : Mountains and rivers are not in the same area, but winds and moons are in the same sky.
The poetry came from the embroidery of Buddhist robes given by the Japanese Tang Dynasty in 8th century.
Japan wanted to learn Buddhism and Chinese culture.
The Tang priest Jianzhen (688-763), who created the opportunity to spread Buddhism in Japan.
Impressed by the poetry , he decided to cross the sea and spread Buddhism in Japan.
We could overcome the several differences and connect landscape, color, and various sense with the world like the poetry as well.
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