I love Fu-ka Wakisaka. Fu-ka makes me feel special. She always makes me and my family smile and that makes her an angel. When I'm talking to her, or even just remembering her, my face naturally smiles. She shows herself straightforward and never hypocrite. She offers handshake and introduce herself whenever she meets someone. She often checks the clock and tells me it is too late that she has to sleep, so I should go home. She takes away my snack and says I'm getting fat. She always talks to her doll about what she feels. She always offers a share of meals when she thinks it is delicious. Like I say she is honest with her feelings. She says what she thinks and she does what she does. She never chose a person, so she does the same even to the Prime minister. She's like a dolphin swimming freely in the ocean, breaking the chains of bonds and social conventions. Her free and unique way of life is a guide for us all to follow. She has Down syndrome

"We are all different and that’s what makes us wonderful. There is a genius in every one of us.". This poem is by Misuzu Kaneko. What's normal? What is the standard by which we judge "normal"? I think that this world is full of "how it should be". I think this concept is called a stereotype. We are all drowning in the same sea of "how it should be", and when we see others drowning right next to us, we feel relieved and feel a sense of solidarity that we are all the same, and we have even forgotten that we cannot breathe. Uniqueness is the opposite of "this is how it should be". It is natural that there are 6.1 billion different personalities in the world. In 2016, 44 handicapped people were stabbed at Tsukui Yamayurien, a facility for the handicap in Japan, and 19 of them died. The perpetrator said, "They are wasting the time and effort. They'd rather die." And all of the victims' families, except for one, did not release the names of their victims. The reason was that they didn't want people to know that they had a handicapped family member. It has been three years since I came to Canada to study. But I have never seen a handicapped person. It might be because they are avoiding the public. Why do people with handicap have to live without being seen? Why is it so difficult to live in this world? It's all because of the stereotypes that this world has created. It is the stereotype that narrows people's vision, takes away their uniqueness, and ultimately makes it difficult to live. It's a very unnatural world.

Darkness is scary.
We dissect people's bodies because we can't see them, we light up the darkness with flashlights because we can't see them, we look at coronaviruses under a microscope because we can't see them. Civilization has evolved so far in order to be able to see what we cannot see. On the other hand, it is the artist who believes that there are invisible things and tries to express them. For example, what is love? Love is invisible. That's why we express it through songs, pictures, and body language. It is Fuka who shows us this invisible thing, the chains of obligation that lie at the root of humanity. These are people who have been sacrificed in institutions of the handicap. They are angels from heaven who spend their whole lives showing us that we are drowning in the chains of social ties and stereotypes, and that it is unnatural. They try to awaken the power of the mind's eye (the power to see the truth with the eyes of the heart) that has been lost from us. The current situation of discrimination and division is an expression of our lack of mind's eye power. Discrimination and division are born from the fact that we are bound by stereotypes and our uniqueness has become hazy. Are you ready to take a good look at what she is about to hand you and embrace it in your hands? Do you have the "mind's eye" to see what is in your hands? Imagine this. In this world where drowning in the sea of "this is the way it should be" is the norm, swimming around freely from the time you are born is in a sense an isolated and lonely thing. They are the true brave-men. They are often called the socially weak. They may be "need help" in a sense, but they are not weak. If we had the power of the mind's eye, we would not describe them in this way. Our lack of mind's eye power has created discrimination and division, making it peculiar and lonely to swim freely in the ocean.

I am a dancer. If the energy, desire, and impulse to believe in the invisible or the invisible itself leads to my artistic activities, I wish to express them in the movements and leaps that my body makes. I hope that my respect for Fuka will dwell somewhere in my dance. May my soul swim freely around the ocean following Fuka's footsteps. What do you see in Fuka?

スタッフAo🤍