Japanese young people do not know Senninbari.

My painters friends in the age of 60’s even say that they know the name, but they have not seen it.

This is my Senninbari which my mother stood on the street and asked for people to stich, one stich for one person, praying for her son’s safety.

It was my good-luck belt which I always wore around my waist during the war.

Go-sen (five cent) coin is stitched on the belt, praying for the soldier to survive a death crisis (Shi-sen, same pronunciation with four cent).

Thanks to this belt, although two out of three ships in our fleet was sunk under my eyes, the torpedo that attacked my ship did not explode. 

Although a soldier next to me lost half of his arm by the attack of an enemy plane, I was not injured at all.

Although most of my comrades died of hunger, thanks to all the other countless lucks, three of us came back home.

This small picture is full of my feelings to my Mom.

I painted it with all my heart.