Here we witness a Japan frozen in time, men and women tied to their land and working, bodies floating in the water of a hot spring. It is one character’s point of view (a painter, inspired by the protagonist in Soseki’s novel Kusamakura) whose remarks freely comment on these images, inciting us to make this same journey in search of a kind of temporary serenity. A traveller, according to Soseki, is someone who understands that ‘it is difficult to live anywhere, someone who finds inspiration for paintings in reality so that, for him, the act of painting removes all suffering.
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