Sakaguchi's "Resume" at Tokyo Watarium

The Kyohei Sakaguchi exhibit, which was over a couple of days ago, made me laugh a good laugh. I agree with Kyohei Sakaguchi 80 percent, which is in fact quite high.

His work, "Resume," warmed my heart. I've been agonized by the Japanese resume form quite a while.

Japanese resume (see pic below) is the perfect representation of "life on the track": You are expected to go to a high school after a junior high, then proceed to a college and then straight to a company. No nonsense between schools and between schools and the so-called real world. "The" Japanese resume form predicates on life on the track. In a sense, it's even a minimalistic tour de force of conceptual arts.

After graduating from a college in the US, I continued my education via enrolling in a number of courses at different community colleges, part of the adult education system that USA should be very proud of. I also changed my employers several times to expand my knowledge and experience. My education and work life therefore totally run off from the Japanese form. I feel I'm "crucified" on the criss-crossing lines of the Japanese resume form. I feel I'm out of question from "their" viewpoint because my life does not fit to life on the track.

Roland Berthas, one of my favorite writers, says, "Scratch the surface, and there's a history." I tried it when I was fumed with the resume form, and somehow a Chinese term,「科挙」、pronounced "Kakyo," emerged on the surface of my brain. "Kakyo" is an infamous examination system created in China circa B.C. 200. Is Japanese resume might be one of the vestige of Kakyo and incredibly still surviving?

Pic: Watarium Museum. It goes well with yellow.

　 While I was away from Japan、a cream ban has evolved、a telephone box almost completely disappeared in Tokyo, and subway lines changed its name to "Metro" and multiplied in the underground world of Tokyo, the form of Japanese resume has not changed even a bit (and the design of the 10 yen coin hasn't changed at all). Isn't it weirdly stagnant?

So Mr. Sakamoto's "Resume" warmed my heart and I feel love toward the artist.

If I write Sakamoto style resume, I'll include playing with my brothers (cooping up a cat in an empty wooden apple box and trying to observe the cat's behavior when pouring a water from the above etc) going for a long walk with neighboring kids after school. Those were important matters definitely involved in shaping my inner space called mind. I especially liked going for a long walk (sometimes by myself), which was quite an adventure for me at that time. We just walked to a far away place to make a return trip to home. I often picked up a rusted bottle opener etc. on the way and kept it as a treasure in my tin box. Sakamoto's resume didn't include those staff. My guess is that he didn't have siblings. Also, when he was a kid, it might have been too dangerous for a kid to go for a walk by themselves.

I feel I'm forced to fit myself to that form of cross, which is "resume."