Photo/Illutration Visitors do some end-of-year shopping at the Kuromon Market in Osaka's Chuo Ward on Dec. 30. (Jin Nishioka)

“I wonder every year on New Year’s Eve if a year will ever come some day that makes me truly miss it when it’s over,” says “rakugo” (comic storytelling) artist Kosanji Yanagiya, starting his year-end musings.

Yanagiya, in his book titled “Ma Ku Ra” (Lead-in), elaborates, saying that such a year would bring smiles to everyone’s faces because it would be “so wonderful that they don’t want it to end.”

“But as far as I can recall,” he goes on, “I’ve never experienced it, and that’s probably because of my questionable character.”

This year, I feel more acutely than ever that not only do I not miss this annus horribilis, but I’d rather forget it.

People lost their jobs. Even if they didn’t become completely unemployed, their lives were no longer what they were before. And we couldn’t see people who matter to us.

But despite all that--or maybe precisely because of it--I want to at least try, on this New Year’s Eve, to look for small blessings in this past year of many disappointments.

Photographer Harumichi Saito’s work dried up, turning his busy life inside out. Before the pandemic, he was always traveling, but he no longer had anywhere to go.

After some days of wavering, he decided to weed his badly neglected yard and plant sunflower seeds, an account of which he penned in the autumn/winter issue of Chabudai (Dining table) magazine.

He then embarked on his “fixed-point observation photography” project. The sunflowers soon grew taller than his 18-month-old son, and quickly dwarfed his older 4-and-a-half-year-old son.

While continuing to shoot pictures, Saito absent-mindedly gazed at the flowers. This routine went on for a few months, which Saito described as “days that purified the dregs.”

Life amid the pandemic probably forced many people to choose their “fixed points.” The small happiness they found there may have been something said by a family member, or perhaps a book they read or music they listened to.

It’s good to try to recall those moments.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 31

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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