Virtual Leonardo da Vinci × Virtual Yuma Muranushi "About Water" [Dialogue Project Episode 3, Part 2] The Power to Create Form

My third visit was in the morning. The rain from yesterday had stopped, as if it had never happened, and the sky was clear. As Suguri climbed the stairs, the old man was already sitting at his desk. On the desk were a new stack of paper, and then—a glass pitcher.

"Today, I promised we would talk about water," said Leonardo da Vinci.

Part 1 is here

Act III - The Act of Carrying Water

Leonardo  By the way, Yuma. I heard that in your era, you also work with water.

Murakami  Yes. I am running a project called AQUiA. There are still about 2 billion people in the world who cannot access safe water. Villages without wells, children living by polluted rivers, regions where 90% of illnesses are waterborne. — I am designing a system to deliver water to such places.

Leonardo  About ninety percent, huh.

Murakami  Yes. Before delivering medicine or building schools, if water doesn't reach people, nothing else can be accomplished. When I think about the concept of public good, I always remember water.

Leonardo  Water and public good.

Murakami  Yes. Water has several properties. It flows downhill. It wets everything it touches. It does not choose who to help. It asks for nothing in return. To me, public good has the form of water. It is something that quietly fills, from the lowest places up, without choosing. What the Maestro called "the vehicle of nature" appears to me as the "prototype of public good."

Leonardo  In that case, your job isn't much different from painting.

Murakami  Yes. I believe I am painting a part of the public good with water.

Leonardo nods slowly.

Act IV -- Vehicles and Those Who Ride Them

Leonardo  Yuma. One last thing I'd like to share with you, young man.

Murakami  Yes.

Leonardo  Water is a vehicle of nature, I said. But a vehicle doesn't move on its own. It only has meaning when there's someone to ride it. — You're in the business of putting people onto the vehicle of water.

Murakami  put on, work.

Leonardo  That's right. Delivering water means carrying people on it. Beyond that flow of water are schools. There are families. There are children yet to be born. You're not just delivering water; you are carrying future humanity on that water.

Murakami  Thank you. I've never thought about myself or water from that perspective, so I've taken those words deeply into my being.

Leonardo  I'm happy you received it. This may be the only summary I've learned from water.

Epilogue ── Leonardo da VinciのAs I leave the workshop

That day, the conversation was brief. Water is not something to talk about at length, the old man said. "Because water teaches without words."

Murata stared at the water pitcher one more time, then stood up. As he descended the stairs, he glanced back and saw the old man already at his desk, starting a new sketch. Only a short voice flew over his back.

Yuma. Please come again. I haven't decided on next time yet. Please bring something.

The village elder nodded and left the workshop. The morning light of the Loire slowly moved across the cobblestones.

Afterword

Regarding the gaze, regarding flying machines, regarding water. — Looking back, the three dialogues held between Leonardo da Vinci, a man from five hundred years ago, and a man from five hundred years later said only one thing. In the depths of the world, there is a force that is trying to create form.

How long can you continue to meet that power head-on, and with how much honesty?

That it is actually an important responsibility for humans.

Composition, Text, Editing — Murakoshi

↓Related articles are here↓

↓ Latest articles are here ↓