These numbers are my self portrait.

Mitsuhiko Sasao, known as the painter of red, provided us with the illustrations for this year’s 2018 Hobonichi Whiteboard Calendar. From the moment we asked him to illustrate the numbers, he was ecstatic. Sasao practically turned into a ball of energy and dove headfirst into the project.

He told us, “These numbers are my self portrait.” But what could that possibly mean? We talked with him and heard all about his debut as an artist at 56 years old and the colorful stories that followed. We bring you this interview in four parts. The interview is by Hobonichi team member Okuno.

(Sasao has also provided us with the artwork for one of the 2018 Hobonichi Techo covers. It’s definitely worth checking out!)

I became a painter at 56.

—: I’m a big fan of your work, but I’m just as interested in the fact that you didn’t start painting until you were 56 years old.

Sasao: Oh, really?

—: That is, that you quit your job and debuted as a painter at that age.

Sasao: Right.

—: I think that’s amazing. And now you’re celebrating the 20th anniversary of your debut, which means you’ve spent 20 years in this new life.

Sasao: That’s true. I’ve had 20 very fun years.

—: Could you tell us a little about that? What motivated you to start over as a painter?

Sasao: By that time I’d been working at an advertising agency for over 30 years. My background was in design, so I’d worked as an art director and a creative director before spending 10 years in management.

—: I see.

Sasao: I enjoyed the work, but I never truly felt like I had control over the things I was doing. It was only after I turned 40 that I began to wonder whether there was something more out there.

—: So that was after 20 years in the marketing business?

Sasao: It was sort of a golden age of marketing—when Shigesato Itoi was a big name in the business. The environment was very welcoming to advertising.

—: But you still wondered if there was something more.

Sasao: The creative team we’d put together allowed us to explore lots of new opportunities. We worked hard together, and I made a lot of friends. But I was always a little frustrated when I remembered that I would never be the one to make the final decision.

—: There was always someone to answer to—the client.

Sasao: Right. And it made me wonder whether I was really doing this for myself.

—: We worked on a feature, once, about people experiencing a midlife crisis at 40. It sounds like you had reached that point. Sasao： Yeah, I was about 42. But I didn’t have any other direction in mind, so I decided I would start investing in myself.

—: Investing?

Sasao: Time, money, energy. I knew it would affect my family, too. But I was still busy at my marketing job, and things were going well there, so I couldn’t quite get myself to quit.

—: Yes.

Sasao: I started with what you see over there—pottery.

—: Wow, there’s so much of it.

Sasao: I spent all my nights and weekends making it. They’re all vases for flower arrangements.

—: They’re beautiful.

Sasao: I did that for a while. Then one day my wife brought home two old frames from the dump. She gave them to me and said, “Here—you like painting, don’t you? Why don’t you give it a try.”

—: So it was your wife who brought it up.

Sasao: Yes.

—: Were you painting at the time?

Sasao: No, I wasn’t.

—: But you had before that?

Sasao: When I was a student. But I was in the design program at the university; we didn’t learn how to paint. So I was basically self-taught.

—: Where did you learn the fundamentals?

Sasao: When I was in high school, I was aiming to get into art school. For three years, every single day from 4 to 11：30 PM, I went to a studio.

—: Wow, that long? And every day?

Sasao: I took a break for a day or two over new years. But other than that I went every day.

—: So you painted three-hundred and sixty… three days a year?

Sasao: I was always working on the fundamentals of painting. Every day, deep into the night.

—: That’s incredible—I’m not sure high school baseball players going to Koshien even practice that much!

Sasao: I don’t remember thinking much of it at the time.

—: Oh, really?

Sasao: But going back to what we were talking about, since my wife had brought me those old frames, I gave it a shot. And once I did that first painting I couldn’t stop.

—: And your brush kept moving.

Sasao: Before I even realized what was happening, my house was filled with paintings.