The Happy End of The Painter And The Writer
A versatioweenMURAKAMIHaruki andANZAIMizumaru
M stands for MURAKAMI, A for ANZAI
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Co-operating For The First Time
M. Do you think our versation topics very often have nothing to do with painting?
A. It seems so.
M. We oried to discuss the topi the magazine, but didnt actually delve into it.
A. Hmm ...
M. We discussed that iain special n. A long time ago really. That was the Today magazine of Cultural Publicatioment.
A. Yes! I remember that picture was called "The Su In The Mirror"!
M. You mean the oh a dog in it? That was -
A. The first time we worked together!
M. We had a good time chatting even before that!
A. In a certain cafe in Sendagaya -- the oroduced by you.
M. Later I invited you be to design the cover for me. But before that I had done something more ...
A. Writing ns fazines?
M. You mean Part Time News? Thats what I did afterwards ...
A. Yes! Oh, the first book ought to be A Slow Boat To a!
M. Now you remember it! At that time, I was only a new writer. How dare I think of those toppest illustrators? So I decided to ask Sasaki Makito design covers for my long novels. In fact, I have been a big fan of his sihe age of Galo. Only at that time very seldom did Sasaki drawcovers for books.
A. When I first looked at your book cover, it striked me as if I had known it somewhere. But I couldhe painter. Moreover, the covers bySasaki Maki really differ different from the styles of others. Theyre so fresh!
M. Makis both a cartoonist and painter himself. Its really ceous of me in asking him to design the cover for me!
A. You were so bold!
M. Really!
A. I agree! (laughs)
M. I was too keen on impl Sasaki Maki to help me that I thought of nothing else. It turned out that I myself was very satisfied with the
cover, and it did receive a lot of good ents! Yet short fi is different from novels. Therefore I also wish to invite some other paio help me. So I thought of you Mizamaru Seian. At that time our works ...
A. Very cartoonish!
M. They striked me as very special, though. And the result was so satisfactory.
A. In that period I got a special desire. I didnt want to draw the real self with plete clarity. So I tried to extract the outlines of mypictures, and produced effects like those of paper-cut works.
M. Yes, like paste drawings. At that time not so many people would try that method.
A. It was a hing for me too, and many did not discover that was my work.
M. I didnt reize your work even.
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The Pictures Of Novels versus That Of Short Fi
A. It always seems to me inappropriate to employ a sharp mode of painting for the works of Murakami, especially his short fi. Yetsomehow the more you wish not to make yourself stand out, the clearer you depict yourself! I was finally at ease after I received the phonecall from the editor tellihat Murakami liked the effect!
M. Many people plain that its too challenging to design the cover for my works.
A. It would be much easier if one could everything but simply draw. But it seems that I ushed by something to produon works!
M. Actually, I used to have an idea in my mind everytime I a