A tall young man with glasses looked down at the girl holding a big white sheet of paper on her lap. It was at the far end of the playground near a jungle gym. The sun was strong and the wind was cool. There were little bushes and trees and sand on the ground to play with.

The image is still so clear. Maybe he wasn’t so tall, but he was always standing, and I was always sitting and looking up to his smiling face to find some answer. And he would say, “It’s okay. Don’t worry about making mess.” I wanted to impress him by making something beautiful. But there was no success. Knowing my intention or not, he was always just there in the same relaxed manner, standing with his back to the sun.

My kindergarten teacher, Saburo Murakami, passed away in January 1996. He didn’t see the...

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