This was my first work at 50 × 50 cm, drawn two summers ago. It was inspired by the spring water at Hikosan Shrine and Takasumi Shrine, which I often visited at the time.

At first I wanted to draw the spring itself; but as I drew, I found myself wondering whether it was I who wanted to draw the water, or the water that wanted to appear…

Being selected was never the goal of entering an open exhibition. I simply wanted to ask whether what I had would hold up. I think of a finished work as a distillation of the whole process of my life so far.