The Versatile Master Artist

A yellow bird of unknown species landed on the broken sculpture by the water, curiously observing the young couple embraced on the lawn with its tiger-colored pupils, pondering whether it could allow itself to hop over to peck at the bag of puffy wheat crisps placed there by the bodyguard nearby.

“Meow.”

The yellow bird turned its head and found a bored big cat squatting under the sculpture staring at it.

It seemed that in its heart, it too had been considered as a post-meal snack like those wheat crisps.

The bird was startled, chirped twice, and jumped up to fly away.

Ah Wang bared her teeth slightly, waved her paw, feeling a bit frustrated. Back when she had not yet gotten chubby, she’d catch such reckless dumb birds with one precise pounce every time.

She stared at the patch of yellow bird disappearing into the distant grove, hesitated for a few seconds.

Oh well, let it go.

Every day, when she lay down by the feet, rolled around, stretched her neck to rub and act cute, there would be a big sister to feed her delicious food. This cat didn’t bother with petty grudges anymore.

She turned her gaze back.

Gu Weijing still lay on Koizumi Katsuko’s lap, neither of them speaking.

Miss Sakai was playfully using a small elastic band to braid a little tuft of hair from her boyfriend’s forehead.

Gu Weijing was sorting through his thoughts, savoring the girl’s metaphor of ‘state of mind like porcelain’.

Ah Wang wrinkled her nose at the sight filled with the sour stench of romance.

This cat, yearning for freedom, suddenly felt she was being maliciously isolated by life.

She gave Gu Weijing a glance.

The motion of the other party just pushing her disdainfully off his chest had hurt Ah Wang’s self-esteem.

Cat is unhappy, cat ignores you.

Ah Wang jumped beside Miss Sakai, licking the back of the sister’s hand.

After Koizumi Katsuko moved her gaze over, she rolled on the ground and softly meowed in a fawning manner, seeking a hug.

“I’m so cute, don’t hug him, hug me, hug me!”

Ah Wang turned her round head most humanly, trying to push Gu Weijing off the sister’s lap.

“Get up, let’s go boating, I just saw that you can rent those two-person wooden fishing boats here. We can go have some fun together.”

Koizumi Katsuko opened her arms, allowing Ah Wang to jump into her embrace and snuggle, while suggesting as she scratched the soft flesh near the cat’s tail with her fingers.

Gu Weijing did not refuse this time.

“Then when am I considered ready, well-adjusted to pick up the brush again? Can it be after we finish boating?”

He asked uncertainly.

“Maybe yes, maybe no. It’s not I who should answer this question, but your own heart.”

“My parents just told me this concept. Specifically, what it means to have nurtured that ‘porcelain cup’ properly, no one in the world knows your heart better than you, Mr. Gu.”

Koizumi Katsuko stood up holding the cat, “My father once had a similar problem for a while; during that period, my mom and he often went to Asakusa Temple together to draw lots.”

“One day, they encountered a Zen master at Asakusa Temple, who told my father, ‘Chaos brings darkness, awakening brings light.’”

“He said, ‘Mr. Sakai, when a person falls into demons, all thoughts turn gray, countless disorders arise. When one becomes a Buddha, the sun rises in the east, and the heart is at peace.’

“My father found it both cryptic and absurd at the time.”

“Becoming a Buddha and falling into demons are both abstract concepts. Among those old monks, exaggeratedly divine by legends in Tokyo and Nara City, forget about becoming a Buddha, few lived past seventy. But my father said later, when he felt that moment of enlightenment, he indeed experienced peace and joy as if becoming a Buddha instantly.”

“At that moment, he could hardly believe that the perfect work under his pen was something he could draw. He truly felt he had ‘become a Buddha’.

“I think, the moment when you decide you are ready might be an all-consuming rebirth from the inside out, from soul to physique. At that fleeting instant, you will know you are ready.”

Koizumi Katsuko took Gu Weijing’s hand, looking seriously into his eyes.

“I assure you, at that time, you won’t need five minutes of drawing practice to secure a calm heart. True growth requires only a slow blink, a strong heartbeat, a serene breath.”

Peaceful and joyful, becoming a Buddha instantly.

Gu Weijing raised his eyebrows. The air of immortality surrounding Elder Cao, a grandmaster in the art world with the ability to make the Bodhisattva open its eyes with his brush stroke, was something he could believe.

After all, the old man was nearly a hundred years old.

In folklore from the feudal era, that truly would be the kind of person who could be idolized and attain Buddhahood on the spot.

In Ingres’ biography of Hao Chao in Jinshu, Celestial Master Zhang Daoling, the founder of Taoism on Qingcheng Mountain, lived just over a hundred years as well.

Uncle Sakai?

Gu Weijing racked his brain to recall the image of that round and chubby Professor Sakai, working hard at eating chicken legs like a hamster.

Apart from the physique resembling Maitreya Buddha a bit, where is the Buddha nature in that!

Moreover,

Professor Yakai Ichiro’s painting style and subject choices were greatly influenced by classicism.

Even to this day,

Uncle Sakai is often referred to as the “Ingres of the East” in many art magazines.

So what is the most well-known characteristic of classicism and Ingres’ paintings?

Academically, it can be summarized as using complete outlines, rigorous compositions, and delicate colors to paint the naked skin of female figures, expressing intricate and intimate texture.