Autumn in the morning mist, a shifting scene with a misty river.

This landscape painting appears to depict a sense of depth and an atmosphere that continues into the distance by using dots and lines.

To tell the truth, this is not a painting. It is part of a surface of the door of the bicycle parking lot at my condominium.

It is a pattern of scratches and rust produced on a stainless-steel plate when the door frequently opened and closed over the past dozen years or so. I had never paid attention to the door before, but when I suddenly saw it under sunlight, I felt as if I was seeing a scene of a landscape painting. I paused in front of the door, unable to take my eyes off it. In the eyes of many people, it may look like mere stains or scratches. Since I got pleasure out of finding a pattern on it, I have been looking forward to seeing what changes it will bring in the days to come.

An object radiates a unique atmosphere as it ages and becomes well-used. It deepens its appeal as its user accumulates affectionate memories of using it. That’s especially so in the case of our favorite objects. People hope some objects will keep their initial state of freshness. In my case, however, I prefer to keep cherishing my favorite objects while harboring affectionate feelings about the traces they leave on their surfaces as human-object relationships deepen. To nurture better partnerships with tools that require manual operations like motorcycles, it’s important to place high values on building fascinating relationships between objects and humans.

Shogo Kinoshita

Product Design Dept.

Unit Leader