On February 26th, actress Fumi Dan attended a press conference for past presenters of "Sunday Art Museum" (NHK Educational TV, Sunday 9:00 AM) at the NHK Broadcasting Center in Shibuya, Tokyo. She reflected on her memories of Japanese painter Fumiko Hori, who passed away in 2019, whom she met through the program.
"Sunday Art Museum" began broadcasting on April 11, 1976, and will celebrate its 50th anniversary this April. Dan, who hosted the show from April 2006 to March 2009, smiled and said after recording the special program celebrating the 50th anniversary, "I was reminded once again that I was able to take part in a great program." He continued, "Meeting Japanese painter Hori Fumiko was a treasure in my life, and I fondly recalled the weekends I would visit her home in her later years and spend time with her."
When asked, "What was the most memorable thing about the recording of the program?", Dan mentioned Hori's name, recalling, "I thought he was such a big-scale person, and I was proud that there was someone of such scale in Japan, and I was excited to be able to meet such a person."
During a conversation he had with Hori at his studio, Dan revealed, "I immediately fell in love with him. I said on the spot, 'I'll become your disciple. Please let me be your disciple.'" He continued, "Hori was the kind of person who didn't take on disciples, didn't get used to them, and didn't rely on others, so it was very difficult for me, but in his later years I ended up becoming his disciple, visiting his home on weekends and listening to him talk about various things."
Regarding what is so wonderful about Hori, Dan said, "He never got used to his own style, and no matter how successful he was or how much he sold, he would tear it down and start again from scratch, and he repeated this until the very end." He expressed his respect, saying, "I think he painted everything, from neurons seen under a microscope to the universe. He even painted cracks in the road, so I got the feeling that there must have been some pictures that he didn't paint."
Arata Iura and Miu Sakamoto also attended the press conference, which was moderated by the station's announcer Nami Morimoto.
Dan, Iura, and Sakamoto will appear in the special "50th Anniversary of Broadcast: My Sunday Art Museum," which will be broadcast on NHK Educational TV from 9:00 a.m. on March 29th.
