BACK TO INDEX     NEXT

Work  046

Total Direction
by Hideo Yokokawa

..



White Funeral
in memory of my sister-in-law



In the early morning of January 6th. In the deep snow reaching 9 feet. Cold. The breath is white. The car heads for the crematory with the wheel chains heavily creaking on the snow of a foot depth newly fallen on the frozen asphalt during the previous night.

Passing the town street,
the car moves into the vast snow field of Tokiwa Flat.
Suddenly, the trees covered by whiteness of hard frozen powdery snow on the hillsides of Daishoji mountain ranges dazzle my eyes.
Whiteness far exceeding pure white!

I have no words to express this beauty.
My eyes, pierce the earth to the reverse and print it all over.
My brain,
never forget this brilliant purity.

After that, I see
the calm bones
of whiteness
of innocent quietness.

In the emptiness of my spirit,
a pair of chopsticks in my right hand picks up a bone,
assisted by somebody's beside me.
Two pairs of chopsticks additionally pick up a bone twice further, and
move it into the white porcelain in
the solemn silence and absolute calmness.