"Shuji Terayama  Shuntaro Tanikawa VIDEO LETTER" "video letters 1982-1983" "From Shuntaro Tanikawa to Shuji Terayama September 6, 1982" "I found some old pictures." "Neo-pan SS film developed at Koide camera shop." "Old pictures of you with Toru Takemitsu, dated June 1960." "I found these old pictures." "I read your new poem in the Asahi Newspaper." "Not bad, though a little like Ryuichi Tamura." "When put into words, everything appears a bit too neat... don't you think?" "From Shuji Terayama to Shuntaro Tanikawa September 10" "Thank you for your letter by video." "You say that, when put into words, everything becomes too neat." "But sometimes there are things I can't bear without putting them into words." "Words..." "Words..." "Words..." "This is how things go with me these days." "THINGS" "From Shuntaro Tanikawa to Shuji Terayama September 10" "In short... uh... you know" "Mmmm... what to say... after all, in the long run..." "I mean..." "Well... very much so... ambiguous or perhaps... formless... there's a flowing, you see," "which means, probably, in the sense that there's flowing, there seems to be something which..." "From Shuji Terayama to Shuntaro Tanikawa September 15" "Get lost, get lost, get lost..." "September 15" "Tanikawa-san, thank you for a lot of words." "But the problem is that the words are not letters and not sounds but "meaning"." "Nothing but meaning can resurrect what is going under, what is breaking down." "I like to think so." "What do you think, Tanikawa-san?" "From Shuntaro Tanikawa to Shuji Terayama September 16" "The Japanese word "meaning" consists of the two characters, "sense" and "taste"." "There is a physical aspect embedded in the word." "Don't you think so?" "Meaning is not necessarily just logic..." "From Shuji Terayama to Shuntaro Tanikawa September 18" "September 18th, morning." "Good morning!" "Tenjo Sajiki THE LEMMING" "TODAY'S MEDICINE" "Tanikawa-san, thinking about "no meaning"..." "Neither meaning nor logic belongs to the author alone..." "Half of it is created by the receivers, don't you think?" "From Shuntaro Tanikawa to Shuji Terayama September 19" "From Shuji Terayama to Shuntaro Tanikawa September 24" "I-NU (dog)" "September 24" "I-MI (meaning)" "When do you make use of "no meaning"?" "For instance, it's useful when I think of my demented mother." "In what way is it useful?" "It is useful when I encounter something I'm unable to evaluate... with the system of "meaning" or "value" that I have at hand." "I go on to think what sort of "no meaning" meaning there is... in this "no meaning"." "Are "no meaning" and "no logic" the same thing?" "No, I don't think they are." "Now, talking about the logic of "no meaning", do you mean that you want a very logical "no meaning"?" "I suppose I do, if I exaggerate." "So when I say "no meaning", after all I'm looking for some sense of meaning which transcends what I've so far meant by "meaning"." "I don't think we can find an exhaustive "no meaning"." "But for me words tend to function something like the text of a picture book." "So words and images, including their contradictions or the gulf between them, are part of a system of communication which has a synthesizing character." "What would you say to a girl, for instance, who asked you what "no meaning" means?" "Well, it would depend on..." "how should I put it?" "... what things you're surrounded by and what their condition is and so on..." "From Shuntaro Tanikawa to Shuji Terayama September 26" "It seems to me that life itself is something beyond mere "meaning"." "I think there's something that can't be grasped by meaning alone." "[Weather forecast]" "Do you know what there is between "meaning" and "no meaning"?" "A facade, an illusion of meaning." "If you got too stuck on words," "I'm afraid you'd fail to grasp both "meaning" and "no meaning"... and you'd finally move towards "the illusion of meaning"." "I'm not holding my camera with steady hands and can't focus properly." "Is this proof that I'm alive?" "I shall introduce my dogs to you soon." "The first one is Professor Hastings, the daughter;" "the next one is Wan, her mother." "They don't question "meanings" nor do they question "no meanings"." "Sunday, September 26th, 9am" "From Shuji Terayama to Shuntaro Tanikawa" "November 1927:" "my mother." "October 1982:" "my mother." "Thank you for your letter, Tanikawa-san." "It is because we live in an age when we can't clearly tell "meaning" from "no meaning", that we get stuck in words." "I can't help but feel life is not "meaning" or "no meaning", but the illusion of no meaning." "Yes, the illusion of no meaning." "And the body gradually gets left behind." "From Shuntaro Tanikawa to Shuji Terayama November 16" "This is my carpet." "This is my battery." "This is my measure." "This is my bamboo flyer." "This is my tangerine." "This is my doll." "This is my drum." "This is my whistle." "These are my tissues." "This is my picture." "This is my hammock." "This is my newspaper" "This is my banana." "This is my towel." "This is my picture book." "This is my beer." "This is my memo." "This is my letter." "This is my back..." "my back scratcher." "This is my record." "These are my glasses." "These are my cigarettes." "This is my lighter." "This is my memo book." "This is my credit card." "These are my keys." "This is my money." "This is my pencil." "This is my bag." "This is my watch." "This is my shirt." "This is also my shirt." "This is my belt." "These are my socks." "This is my handkerchief." "These are my trousers." "These are my briefs." "This is my left foot." "This may be my blue heaven." "Who am I?" "Is this my poem?" "From Shuji Terayama to Shuntaro Tanikawa January 15, 1983" "SHUJI TERAYAMA" "Is it me?" "No, it's four characters written on a writing pad." "Is it me, then?" "No, it's just a photograph." "Then, this voice that speaks, is it me?" "No, I'm not here any more." "Am I an invisible man?" "I don't know... perhaps..." "Perhaps I'm a Japanese." "Perhaps I'm from Aomori Prefecture." "Perhaps I'm a poet." "Perhaps I'm not Shuntaro Tanikawa." "Perhaps I'm a single man." "Perhaps I'm a director of the Tenjo Sajiki acting company." "Perhaps I'm an only son." "Perhaps I'm a patient with liver trouble." "Perhaps I'm an Earthian." "One who can't decide on the best answer..." "would that be me?" "From Shuntaro Tanikawa to Shuji Terayama January 17" "Mint tea." "From Shuji Terayama to Shuntaro Tanikawa January 21" "What is Shuntaro Tanikawa?" "A poet." "What kind of food does he resemble?" "A sixty yen Morinaga drop." "OK." "What is Shuntaro Tanikawa?" "I think he's a writer." "What kind of food is he like?" "A cucumber, I think." "What is Shuntaro Tanikawa?" "What is he?" "What number is he?" "About nine and a half." "OK." "What is Shuntaro Tanikawa?" "A poet." "What kind of food is he like?" "A marshmallow pie." "How much does he cost?" "Ninety-nine yen." "I dunno..." "What number is he?" "Thirty-five or six..." "OK." "What is Shuntaro Tanikawa?" "The person who translated Snoopy." "What kind of food is he like?" " You mean Tanikawa?" " Yeah." "A sweet bean cake." "OK." "What is Shuntaro Tanikawa?" "I don't know." "I know nothing about such things." " What kind of food is he like?" " Pardon me?" "What kind of food is he like?" "What kind of food?" "Well, what can I say?" ".." "What is Shuntaro Tanikawa?" "I understand he's a poet." "How much does he cost?" "The price?" ".." "About twenty thousand yen, I suppose." "What is Shuntaro Tanikawa?" "What kind of food is he like?" "What is Shuntaro Tanikawa?" "What kind of food is he like?" "Shuntaro Tanikawa" "TWO BILLION LIGHT YEARS OF SOLITUDE" "REGARDING MYSELF" "My life is a notebook, a notebook whose price is uncertain" "(a sequence of inorganic entities, a cosmic void)." "My job is taking notes, notes in this notebook, splendidly full of devotion," "(lacking neat order, marked with messy handwriting)." "My trendy clothing is the notebook's cover, a cover of this notebook, bright and dainty," "(childishly awkward, with its colors getting soiled)." "Hmm, I'm walking." "I take the notes and, in the primitive times of the 20th century," "I walk my walk bit by bit, Ever shy, I'm walking." "From Shuntaro Tanikawa to Shuji Terayama January 22-28" "You can't learn what you are by asking yourself, nor by asking someone else." "You see what you are only in what you do." "When I see the face of someone whom I have hurt," "I can't help but feel my presence." "At such a moment the words go to sleep." "When the words sleep, what world wakes up, I wonder?" "From Shuntaro Tanikawa to..." "June 2" "From the volume of poetry The Book in the Sky" "The Forest Keeper" "Having run all the way through the woods," "I buried my flushed cheeks in the dark hydrangea." "Don't soil the poem by the abused boy with the spurting juice of ripe grapes." "In the dark shed in the woods I always passed by, there lived a keeper I'd like to have called father." "I stood in my straw hat, my arms extended, before a girl who had never seen the sea." "The girl who used to wash wooden dishes in the summer river, holding them under the surface, now lives within me." "As though chasing my wind-blown hat, I shall run home along the country road." "I first read Turgenev deep inside a barn where hanging onions were sprouting." "Seen from the speeding train, sunflowers looked like hats boys were waving." ""Tomorrow" sounded saddest of all when said by a teacher of Japanese who reeked of tobacco." "Twenty years old." "In May I was born." "I tread on the leaves and call young trees chestnuts." "Now is the time." "At the entry of my season" "Bashfully towards the birds I raise my arms." "Twenty years old." "In May I was born." "Translated by Tetsuo Kinoshita, Kazuo Kawamura, William I. Elliott... and more..."