TOKYO / NEW YORK
or
THE ARTIST, THE ARTIST AND THE ARTIST
INTRO
There are two museums in Japan that have collections of work by On Kawara that have remarkable similarities. MOMAT and MOT. Being 'Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo' and 'Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo'. I know what you're thinking - it should be MOMAT and MOCAT. If only life was that logical. But it's more than this acronymic anomaly which tells me that communication and co-operation between these two institutions is not quite what it might be. (Perhaps that's a little harsh. I'm talking from a very long way away. See what you think when you get to the end of this essay.)
When On Kawara left Japan for Mexico in 1959, he donated a lot of work to MOMAT. The Bathroom series (28 drawings), The Warehouse series (31 drawings) and two paintings from 1954. In addition, nearly twenty years later, he donated Colored Cryptogram from 1965, a work made when he was settling into the New York studio that he would go on to create extraordinary work in. That is the only one of six or so On Kawara code works that remains decoded by the crack team of Tommy Wrede (Sweden), Anders Delbom (Sweden) and me (Scotland). I suspect a knowledge of Japanese will be needed to crack this particular one. I wouldn't be surprised if, when the code is broken, it touches on On Kawara's reasons for deserting his homeland. But I digress.
MOMAT and MOT both own three Date Paintings. MOMAT has JULY 15, 1970, which the museum acquired. It also owns DEC. 14, 1966 and 27 JUL. 1988. These two were bequests from Japanese art collector, Masahiko Ota, who died in 2023. In 2005, they were photographed by Candida Hofer, presumably at Ota's home:
Reproduced with the forbearance, I hope, of the copyright holder, Candida Hofer.
To the right of the screen is a set of twelve volumes that could be 'I GOT UP', 'I WENT' or 'I MET'. No way of knowing which. Sets of all three were donated to MOMAT and are in its collection. Well done, Masahiko Ota, your job here on earth is complete.
MOT has three Dates also. APR.8, 1981 and 20 JUL. 1985, came into the collection when the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum was merged into MOT. Then NOV. 21, 1985 arrived later. All three were directly acquired by public institutions, they did not come into public ownership via rich collector's bequests.
I'm told that the six Dates haven't been shown together. This is partly because two of them only came into a public collection relatively recently. But also because MOMAT is a national gallery, funded by the central government, and MOT is a metropolitan museum, funded by Tokyo itself. They are both located in the centre of Tokyo, see the two maroon circles in the following map; one in the green area close to the Imperial Palace in the left half, the other at the northern end of Kiba Park in the right half.
However, I can show the six dates together in this essay. Though I'm confined to the tiny versions that the institutions provide on their websites.
First, MOMAT:
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
Second, MOCAT (whoops, MOT):
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Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
No Date to represent On Kawara's output of Dates in the 1990s or the 2000s. Something missing then. But let's stay positive. I did say there were remarkable similarities (plural) to the two collections. That is because they both own a run of 'I GOT UP' cards posted to Japanese artists who On Kawara was very close to.
MOMAT owns 53 cards posted to Ikko Narahara, an enterprising Japanese photographer (born 1931). The first 28 being from June 22, 1974 to July 19, 1974, showing views of New York from the United Nations Building to John F Kennedy Airport. A tour that On sent to many people, with one-month (as here), two-month and three-month versions existing. Then, as a bonus, 25 cards posted from Geneva and Berne in Switzerland, from September 27, 1974 to October 21, 1974, to mark the occasion of On Kawara's travel through Switzerland to see the first large, public showing of his own work. The cards posted from New York were posted from the former New York address of the Naraharas, which the Kawaras had taken over after the former's return to Japan in May 1974. 
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Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
Match that MOT! Well, it can, because in 1975, On sent 83 'I GOT UP' cards to his longstanding friend Kazuo Okazaki (born 1930), the Japanese conceptual sculptor. They began on August 21 (most of the first ten cards show the United Nations building) and ended on December 2 with a pic of JFK airport. In other words, another tour of New York, this one a longer version than the one sent to Ikko Narahara. In the middle of this 'tour' On and Hiroko took a road trip to the Great Lakes, and during this 20-day period, a card did not go to Okazaki but to New Yorker Frank Donegan instead. 
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Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
MOT. A 103 day sequence with a 20-day hole in it. 83 cards in all.
MOMAT. A 28-day sequence and a 23-day sequence with 69 days separating the two sets. 53 cards in all.
Now, On Kawara knew both these artists from his time in Japan and saw them both - separately - in Tokyo and New York from 1968 to 1979, in the years that On was recording his existence via 'I GOT UP', 'I WENT' and 'I MET'.
Would we not learn something about those three artists and their mutual friendships by closely studying such rich material? Surely we would. In which case, would it not make sense for the Tokyo galleries to show the sets of On Kawara 'I GOT UP' cards together? Maybe it would. But what definitely does make sense is for me to research and write this essay as best I can. It's already clear to me that Marcel Duchamp's stunning work, 'The Large Glass' or, officially, The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even, which is housed in Philadelphia Museum of Art, is going to link all three of these impeccable, avant garde Japanese artists.
ONE:
IKKO NARAHARA: 1970
Here is the first 'I MET' list on which the Narahara names appear. Apologies for the lack of sharpness which results from the resolution of the reproduction that I've taken the liberty of copying from the Tama Art University website:
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
How might one interpret the above document? To consult the concurrent self-observation series ('I GOT UP') would seem to be a good starting point. On Kawara got up very early that day in Manhattan, at 4.57A.M.. He sent a postcard to his close friend Hirotsugu Aoki at 97 Crosby Street, an address that On Kawara himself slept at (and 'GOT UP' at) occasionally. (Which is exactly what would happen re the Narahara address. Though that comes later in this essay.)
On Kawara knew Ikko Narahara when they both lived and had careers as artists in Japan. How do we know? An online article confirms that Ikko Narahara was born in 1931, two years before On Kawara. It goes on: 'In 1955, he joined the innovative artists group Real Existence. This group was headed by Masuo Ikeda and Ay-O, and it also gave Narahara the opportunity to deepen his connection to Ahuzo Takiguchi, as well as other artists like Tatsuo Ikeda and On Kawara.' On and Ikko were linked from their Japanese days, even if the above sentence does not supply any convincing evidence.
Narahara spent a few years in Europe, choosing Paris as his base. Perhaps On Kawara knew him there too, as he travelled from Mexico via New York to Paris in the 1960s. But clearly they hooked up in New York in 1970 once they realised that both were living there. Which they would have done from the moment of the Naraharas' arrival, such was the strength of the Japanese artists' network in the city.
In May, On and Hiroko met the Naraharas on four occasions. On was meeting Nobu Fukui, Hirotsuko Aoki and Soroku Toyoshima - Japanese-New Yorker artists and neighbours - roughly that often as well. But as far as I can tell, the Naraharas didn't mix much with those close friends of On. There may have been a certain amount of compartmentalising of relationships going on, notwithstanding the interconnectedness of the New York Japanese art community.
On two consecutive days in May, On met Katsusuke Miyauchi during the same day as the Naraharas, Katsusuke being the Japanese traveller/writer that was so impressed with On Kawara's daily routine when he came across him in Mexico in 1968 and wrote as much. It's possible that On introduced Ikko Narahara to Katsusuke Miyauchi and vice versa, but I won't dwell on that as I don't have enough to go on.
In June, On Kawara met the Naraharas a further three times, including June 13, when it was only Hiroko and the Naraharas that he met all day. The 'I WENT' suggests an address for the Naraharas, and this proves to be consistently the case, as on most occasions when On and Hiroko met the pair, it was at the Naraharas' accommodation. In other words, the following route became (and becomes) familiar:
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
That's On's address at 340 East 12th Street, where he'd been since September 1969, as well as before the trip to Mexico in 1968, at the southern end of the red biro circuit. And that's the Naraharas' address at 24 East 22nd Street, top left of the circuit.
But before I dig further into the data, why is the relationship with Ikko Narahara important? I've already suggested in this essay that the reason that On Kawara went on road-trips across the United States from 1973 onwards, was because of the road-trips that Ikko Narahara made with Keiko, partly for photographic purposes, in 1971 and 1972, in search of joy. However, at this time, Ikko's best known published work consisted of Europe: Where Time Has Stopped. He had also taken photos in a monastery and in a woman's prison, both in Japan, that would ultimately be published in a book called Domains. Maybe the reason that the Kawaras went to the Naraharas was so that Ikko could more easily show them his ground-breaking photographs.
Old friends with - no doubt - a complicated back-story. But Japan was then, in the past; New York was LIVE, all around them. And, I imagine that they (On and Hiroko and Ikko and Keiko) just loved talking about it, sharing their thoughts and ambitions. Having said that, the relationship for the rest of 1970 was fairly low key, On and Hiroko met the Naraharas at least once per month until mid-November, when On embarked on the solo trip to Japan that I have talked about elsewhere but must revisit here.
TWO:
KAZUO OKAZAKI: 1970/71
The main purpose of On Kawara's trip to Japan was surely to check in with his family who he hadn't seen for eleven years. He met five or six members of the Kawahara family on November 15 and 16. But he was staying with the Ishibashis in Tokyo, and would do so for most of the two and a half months he was in Japan.
On didn't meet Kazuo Okazaki until mid-December. But thereafter he met Kazuo and his wife, Tamako, more or less every day for just less than a month. If the rapport between On and Hiroko was anything to go by, Ikko Narahara and Kazuo Okazaki both had strong relationships with their wives, their life partners.
The Ishibashis and the Okazakis lived nearby each other in south west Tokyo, so On Kawara consistently stayed with the Ishibashis but regularly saw the Okazakis. However, on one day in December the 'I GOT UP' card is written from the Okazakis' address, which was 4-37 Tamagawacho, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo. As we'll see, when On Kawara sent 'I GOT UP' cards to Kazuo in 1975, that's the address the cards went to.
From January 1, On went on a trip with the Okazakis. They travelled south from Tokyo, towards Hiroshima and Nagasaki, though not as far as those once decimated places. In fact, they went to a sort of paradise. A manicured landscape dotted with shinto temples and miniature trees close to - or in - Okayama.
Who was Kazuo Okazaki? Why was On Kawara spending so much time with him? I don't have much to go on. Just the odd paragraph of biography such as this:
'Okazaki's works were created as his questions of what constituted the inner and the outer, the front and the back, the empty and the reality. This idea is based upon his predominant ambition "to create objects from Eastern perspectives, as if to supplement what the Western ways of viewing objects have overlooked."'
On Kawara, having immersed himself in Western thought for eleven years, may have found it fruitful to resume a relationship with this artist who was investigating an Eastern way of thinking about the world while bearing the Western perspective in mind.
More about Okazaki:
'In recent years, Okazaki often refers to nature in his works, in which natural objects such as trees, stones and lava are used. The space consisting of these objects is named "Garden of Supplements".
The party met people each day, possibly artist-friends of the Okazakis, so that a typical 'I MET' from the beginning of January would feature between five and ten names.
But one can see from the I WENT maps…
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
…and the choice of postcards for I GOT UP… 
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
…that being in the company off Kazuo Okazaki… 
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
…was having a subtle impact on On Kawara's aesthetic…
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
Back in Tokyo by January 10, On Kawara reverted to his Ishibashi base and didn't see the Okazakis for a few weeks (except for Jan 19 and 20).
He did see them on each of the days leading up to his return flight across the Pacific. And it must have been then that On gifted the Okazakis a Date Painting made the day before they resumed their daily acquaintance. Which was photographed in the Ozakis' house in 2005 (34 years later) by Candida Hofer:
Reproduced with the forbearance, I hope, of the copyright holder, Candida Hofer.
That day's 'I READ', like the other Dates painted in late December, does not include any extracts from Japanese newspapers. Instead, On Kawara writes on an otherwise blank page a sentence in Esperanto. It's a quote from L. L. Zamenof and urges us to remember that Esperanto is not just a language but a solution to grave social problems. Actually, I had better put the sentence through Google translation:
'Don't forget that Esperanto is not just a simple language that each of us uses only for our own needs, but that it is a serious social problem.'
That sentence (in Esperanto) is also the sub-title of that day's Date Painting. The one On gave to his friend and fellow artist.
I imagine that On Kawara discussed with Kazuo Okazaki his decision not to use Japanese for Date Paintings made in Japan. I imagine they discussed whether Esperanto might indeed be able to address the power struggle inherent in communication. Dominant global languages (like English) achieve their status through economic, military, and colonial force. Choosing a constructed, neutral language would be a radical political statement. It would advocate for a level playing field where no single nation holds linguistic sway.
The world as level playing field. Now there's a thought.
THREE:
IKKO NARAHARA: 1971 to 1974
Back in New York, On Kawara's relationship with Ikko Narahara resumed. They met each other regularly. I've written about this in detail elsewhere, so I will try not to repeat myself more than necessary.
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Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
In 1971 and 1972, the Naraharas went on road-trips. One of their journeys was to a music festival in the Deep South. Out of it came this photo which shows Keiko Narahara in the foreground. Her face is blurred, presumably she was there so that Ikko could get away with pointing the camera at the naked figures behind her.
Reproduced with the forbearance, I hope, of the copyright holder, estate of Ikko Narahara.
By the time that Ikko Narahara used this photo on the cover of the book made to commemorate this trip, Keiko had been removed from the image altogether.
Reproduced with the forbearance, I hope, of the copyright holder, estate of Ikko Narahara.
I believe that hearing about these trips inspired the Kawaras to make road-trips of their own. And in October of 1973 they drove all the way from New York to California and back. The 'I GOT UP' and 'I WENT' works being rejuvenated. While the 'I MET' lists were reduced to the single name 'HIROKO HIRAOKA' for the most part. When they returned to New York, they met the Naraharas and - once On and Hiroko had talked sufficiently about there own adventures - Ikko Narahara might have told them about his trip in the fall to Philadelphia to photograph the Marcel Duchamp masterpiece to be found there.
I need to talk about this in detail, but not all at once. As we'll see, Kazuo Okazaki would come and stay with the Kawaras in 1977, his objective being to photograph the same work, The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even. So what was going on?
In 1973, Ikko Narahara was commissioned by Shuzo Takiguchi to capture the transparent glass work of Marcel Duchamp amidst the shifting natural light that fills the Philadelphia exhibition room. And it was this same Shuzo Yakiguchi, surrealist poet and art critic, that Kazuo Okazaki would be working with, and doing the same thing for, in 1977.
Jumping into the future for a moment, in 2019 there was an exhibition of several of Narahara's commissioned photos, given the name 'Rrose Sélavy', on show at the Taka Ishii Gallery in Tokyo. This is a close-up of the centrepiece of that exhibition:
Reproduced with the forbearance, I hope, of the copyright holder, estate of Ikko Narahara.
This image captures a detail, 'Oculist Witnesses', being a small part of the Duchamp piece that is sometimes referred to as 'The large Glass', as it consists of two panes of glass mounted one on top of the other. What can be seen in the Narahara photo is celestial witnesses which can be understood to be overlooking the human events portrayed elsewhere in the work.
Ikko Narahara, at the bequest of Shuzo Yakiguchi, was not the first artist to show interest in this part of Marcel Duchamp's masterpiece. Richard Hamilton had a go at it when he was making a reconstruction of the work for an exhibition in London in 1966. The original, consisting as it did of panes of shattered glass, was deemed too fragile to be shipped from Philadelphia to London.
Oculist Witnesses, Richard Hamilton.
What's more, Richard Hamilton got the by-then elderly Marcel Duchamp to help him with the installation. This is photo of Duchamp clutching the 'Oculist Witnesses' element.
Oculist Witnesses, Richard Hamilton. Photo of Marcel Duchamp.
Below is an image of the whole Duchamp work, The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even, though it can be viewed from either side, as much of it is transparent:
Reproduced with the forbearance, I hope, of the copyright holder.
It's not a painting. The elements of it consist of lead outlines and metal foil that have been placed on the glass - which was shattered when it was being moved from one place to another. Duchamp decided that the shattering added to the work, bringing it to life when light shone on the piece.
In the top glass, there is a semi-abstract female figure on the left. In the bottom half, there are a set of nine foil 'figures' on the left that represent the 'bachelors' of the title. There is also a churning mechanism, the suggestion that certain elements of the image are turning around, grinding. Also, nine circular holes in the glass at the right side of the top glass suggest that the 'bachelors' have been shooting at the female figure, but missing their target.
I'll be coming back to this classic work. Duchamp, now famous principally for the urinal that he signed R. Mutt, seems to have been even more famous in the early seventies, a cult figure, no less. In 1972, when Joseph Beuys had his first exhibition outside Germany, in Switzerland, he would daub on a large canvas, in German: 'The Silence of Marcel Duchamp is Overrated'. 
Reproduced with the forbearance, I hope, of the copyright holder,
The text, which Beuys first came up with in 1964, is a reference to the fact that not long after completing The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even, Duchamp gave up making art and devoted himself to chess, which he was extremely good at. I should say in passing that for portions of his adult life, On Kawara devoted himself to playing chess to a very high standard also.
Meanwhile, On and Hiroko took off on another road-trip. But the four days prior to the trip they'd repeatedly met Ikko and Keiko. And the very night before driving to Philadelphia, their first stop, they'd slept at the Naraharas home.
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
Here is 'I WENT' for March 13, 1974. 
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
Top left corner is the Philadelphia Art Museum. The way the red line is drawn so emphatically almost suggests that On Kawara has gone to the museum to see a specific work. Sure enough, the Duchamp piece is located in the gallery that is in the middle at the front of the building, just as you go in.
On Kawara did not meet Ikko Narahara in Philadelphia. I've checked the 'I MET" and the only name on it is Hiroko's.
The Kawaras road trip took them south via Washington to Florida this time. When they returned to New York on April 8, they again stayed with the Naraharas. In other words, the 'I GOT UP' cards were stamped with the 24 East 22nd Street address.
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Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
What explains this address, is that the Naraharas were getting ready to leave New York for good. On, Hiroko, Ikko and Keiko met for the last time on May 10 and 11. On both days, the 'I WENT' map shows On moving between the Königs' flat and the Naraharas'. The 'I GOT UP' record shows that On and Hiroko immediately moved into the Naraharas' home once they'd vacated. Perhaps they took over the rent. And a month later, after postcards had been going from 24 East 22nd Street to Keiji Usami, in Tokyo, and Jerry Ferguson, in Florida (who I presume On met on the 1974 road-trip) this rather neat thing happened:
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Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
Would it not have given Ikko Narahara pleasure, to be reminded of his former New York home while settling into his new Tokyo home.
So that is us back to where we started. The collection of 'I GOT UP' cards at MOTAT. In June/July, On sent a 28-day sequence to Ikko from New York. And in September/October he sent a 23-day sequence to Ikko from Switzerland, where the Kawaras were having the time of their lives. I don't think On could believe that he was in town dominated by a huge clock tower, a town where earlier in the century Albert Einstein had been living when he'd written his theory about Relativity. But that's another story.
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
There is nothing remotely ordinary about the life and work of On Kawara. He was consistently working on another level. His bandwidth was as remarkable as the restraint with which he expressed himself. It's obvious that he understood quantum mechanics and that he kept up with developments in that field, as witnessed by the essays he chose for the catalogues compiled for his exhibitions. Try reading Roger Penrose's essay 'Conscious Events as Orchestrated Space-Time Selections' and let me know how you get on, dear reader. It's included in On Kawara: Consciousness, Meditation, Watcher on the Hills.
But for now, better stick with this developing scenario. One that fascinates me to the power of a million suns.
Is that hyperbole? I suppose it is. One sun, then.
FOUR:
KAZUO OKAZAKI: 1975 and 1977
In 1975, On Kawara sent 83 postcards to Kazuo Okazaki that are now at MOT. Frustratingly, none are reproduced at a high quality in any of the 20-odd books about On Kawara. So I'm choosing a couple from the low quality (but invaluable) reproductions found on the Tama Art University website.
At the top of this essay, the two I reproduced were from the beginning and end of the sequence (UN building and JFK airport, respectively), so here are two from the middle. One before the road trip to the Great Lakes (when the cards went instead to Frank Donegan) and one after. 
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Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
That is, one showing the interior of the United Nations Building and the other showing the Statue of Liberty. Think of those Twin Towers as a time-specific bonus. There one day, gone the next. Doesn't say much for the influence of the United Nations, though, does it?
Perhaps it was receiving these cards that prompted Kazuo Okazaki to visit New York and to stay with the Kawaras. On and Hiroko, after several years moving between rented lofts, finally were able to buy one (thanks to the initiative of Nobu Fukui, one of their friendship group). The sixth floor of 140 Greene Street (now worth an absolute fortune) was bought for virtually nothing in 1974, and ready to live in by 1977. In the middle of July of that year, Kazuo Okazaki came with fellow artist, Jun Isezaki, and they stayed with the Kawaras for a full month.
Who was Jun Isezaki? He was an artist who kept alive the 1000-year old tradition of Bizen pottery. In Japan, he resurrected the ancient single-chamber tunnel kiln, which relied on natural wood-ash to colour the clay. Not exactly an international, conceptual artist, but there is no way I would underestimate him if he was comfortable in this company.
It probably did both Kazuo Okazaki and Jun Isezaki good to be in New York and experience the bustle, hassle and modernity of the city. Indeed, the Kawaras home on Greene Street was something of an island of calm. An enlightened unofficial residency, providing a base for several Japanese artists each year.
But the pair had a specific project to work on. Okazaki's long-term friendship with Shuzo Takiguchi - the surrealist poet and art critic, remember - who had known Duchamp and had commissioned Ikko Narahara to photograph The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even, was relevant here. It was behind Okazaki's desire to visit the Philadelphia Art Museum and study all of the Marcel Duchamp work that was on display.
It's only an hour and a bit by train from New York to Philadelphia, so I dare say Kazuo and Jun would have hopped on that train a few times, and been back in time for dinner at the Kawara loft.
In the absence of any reproductions of Kazuo Okazaki's work, I'm going to illustrate this stage of my essay with some work by Marcel Duchamp that Okazaki would have photographed. This is Bottlerack
Bottlerack, Marcel Duchamp. Philadelphia Museum of Art.
I suspect that is a 'found object', like the legendary urinal. Yet it has sculptural qualities, as the lazy saying goes.
I've read that Okazaki's creative focus was to recreate simple objects that he'd experienced in childhood. Objects that had been changed by the passage of time and the processing of his memory.
So how about this from Marcel Duchamp at the Philly?
Bicycle Wheel, Marcel Duchamp. Philadelphia Museum of Art.
It's a bicycle wheel. But perhaps in looking at it, Kazuo Okazaki was reminded of how fascinating he had found bicycle wheels as a child. Not because of their functionality, allowing the bike rider to get from point A to point B, but the sheer number of metal spokes going from the inner circle of wheel through the centre point to the opposite side of the wheel's diameter.
"Lovely word, spoke." As Beckett's Krapp might have said, once he's had enough of spool.
Oh yes, Okazaki and his chum could have spent many a happy hour in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Reproduced with the forbearance, I hope, of the copyright holder,
Back home in Manhattan, On would have talked to the Japanese pair about his own impressions of the work, of course he would. But I've no idea what his opinion would have been, so I give you this composite image instead:
Composite image by Duncan McLaren.
Shattered hopes. All is shattered hope.
I call this image The Groom Let Down by His Prostate, Again. If you were to look closely you would see another little round hole in the glass at some distance from the abstract female-cum-insect figure in the top left corner.
I've studied the 'I MET' lists from July 20 to August 20, 1977, and On met Kazuo and Jun nearly every day. Sometimes it's Hiroko's name first, because she was the first person On saw and talked to each day. But sometimes it would be the names 'KAZUO OKAZAKI' and 'JUN ISEZAKI' that head the list. On such occasions it would be because On had been talking with them after midnight and so, with a midnight cut off from one day to the next, they were both the last people met one day and the first people met the next.
So looking at the 'I MET' for July 26, 1977…
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
It really has to be looked at twice. The first time you're realising that at midnight, as July 25 became July 26, On Kawara was talking to Kazuo Okazaki, Jun Isezaki, Takeshi Kawashima, Junko Kuruma and, probably, Hiroko Hiraoka. Then when On got up (8.58A.M. per the 'I GOT UP' card) on the morning of July 26, he met Hiroko, then probably Kazuo and Jun again as they were living in the same loft, then later in the day Rufus F. Zogbaum, K.B. Hwang and Tom Lambrou. Two of those three being neighbours at 140 Greene Street. Rufus F Zogbaum being the third generation of individuals to boast that name. In other words, Kawara should really have written. 'RUFUS F. ZOGBAUM III' so as not to evoke images of a long dead man. Rufus the Third was an art collector, by the way.
Let's look also at the next 'I MET', for July 27…
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
Again it has to be thought of twice. Late at night on July 26, as it becomes July 27, On is talking with Jun, Kazuo and Hiroko. The next morning, On meets Hiroko, as they lie together in bed. (On gets up at 10.16 A.M.) Then he meets Kazuo and Jun at the breakfast table. Later in the day, he bumps into his neighbour, George Lambrou, and before the end of the day he meets his close friend, Aoki and his partner, Teresa O'Connor. I won't reproduce it, but the next day's 'I MET' shows that Aoki, Teresa, Kazuo, Jun and Hiroko talked til after midnight on July 27.
Talked about what? Oh, I don't know. But, as I said, Okazaki's main thing was to recreate simple objects that he'd experienced in childhood. Objects that had been changed by the passage of time and the processing of his memory. He used his hyper-sensitive sensibility and his understanding of materials to come up with the rain, or a doll, or a lightbulb. Here is a rare example I can find online:
Lip Bank. Kazuo Okazaki. Reproduced with the forbearance, I hope, of the copyright holder.
The yellow and red part is foam. An object in between a lip stick and a powder compact? Perhaps Okazaki was remembering his mother applying make-up to her face. In which case The Mother Stripped Bare by her Son, Eventually would have been a possible alternative title, though much too clever-clever.
There is a piece by Okazaki, made in 1977, called Oculist Witnesses after Marcel Duchamp. This sculpture is a multi-layered three-dimensional homage to a specific section of Duchamp's 'The Large Glass', the same specific section that Ikko Narahara had focussed on four years earlier and that Richard Hamilton had homed in on several years before that! That's to say 'The Oculist Witnesses' part of the work. The piece is made of industrial materials: silkscreen on acrylic board, lenses and aluminium. I can't find an image of it online. Copyright seems more strictly controlled in Japan, which is where the work is kept in a museum.
Did Jun Isezaki help Okazaki with the work? I don't know the answer to that.
FIVE:
IKKO NARAHARA AND KAZUO OKAZAKI: 1978/79
On Kawara flew to Japan again in December 1978, eight years after the previous trip.
By this time he and Hiroko had had a child that was a few months old. Undoubtedly the main purpose of the trip was to introduce the baby, Akito, to relatives on both sides of the family.
They were in Japan for a month, from December 16 to January 15, though within that period they took off on their own (leaving their son in Hiroko's mother's care) and visited Hong Kong and Seoul.
Now, as both the Naraharas and the Okazakis were living in Tokyo at this time, one would expect that On would have met up with them at some stage. And the 'I MET' lists show that this did indeed happen. I'm tempted to conclude that Ikko Narahara and Kazuo Okazaki were an essential part of On's inner intellectual circle. Just as Aoki and Soroku Tomoshima provided companionship and stimulation when On was living in New York.
On December 18, 1978, On Kawara walked the short distance from the Ishibashis house to the vicinity of where Kazuo Okazaki lived. It was a day that Hiroko had taken the baby to meet members of her family, I expect. Since neither Hiroko nor Akito is on the 'I MET' list:
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
It looks as if Kazuo and On talked late, as Kazuo heads the next day's list. And later that next day Hiroko and Akito returned to the Ishibashis house. Which may have been quite crowded, as by this time they had three children, whereas in 1970/71 when On had stayed there on his own, the Ishibashis only had the one child, Tone.
A day or so later, on December 20, the Naraharas appear on the Met list:
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
Again, Hiroko and Akito were away the whole of that day, so the Naraharas did not come to see the baby. The Naraharas are at the top of the next day's Met list. Then comes Hiroko's name. So either On was talking to the Naraharas until after midnight on the 20th, and then they went home. Or, they stayed overnight at the Ishibashis and met Hiroko when she came back to the house on her own. Later in the day, Hiroko's mother returned to the house with the baby. I suspect that the first of those alternatives was what happened, but I don't know.
Anyway, that meant that On Kawara had caught up with his primary, non-New York, Japanese artist friends before going off with Hiroko to explore a part of Asia they hadn't been to before (Hong Kong and South Korea).
Back from their Asian travels, on December 30, On and Hiroko (without the baby) again met Kazuo, this time with his wife, Tamako, who hadn't come to New York with Kazuo in 1977. The Okazakis came with a friend, Akemi Oka, and they stayed late as the three (plus Hiroko) are at the top of the next day's 'I MET'.
Kazuo and Tamako met On again on January 7. Actually, the 'I WENT' suggests that the meeting was in central Tokyo. That was another day when Hiroko and Akito weren't around.
Finally, on January 14, the day before leaving Tokyo to return to New York, both the Ozakis and the Naraharas were met on the same day. Thus providing a suitable climactic point to this essay. I must make the most of it.
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
This time Jun Isezaki was with the Okazakis, so perhaps On, Kazuo, Ikko and Jun managed to have a chat about Marcel Duchamp and fire a few shots in the Bride's direction. They might even have done this at the Okazakis' place, as On's 'Went' shows that he took the short walk over there that day, almost due north. 
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
Yes, I'm going to say that the men went off to the Okazakis place to look at Kazuo's collection of Duchamp memorabilia and to remind themselves of this:
Reproduced with the forbearance, I hope, of the copyright holder, Candida Hofer.
The passage of time. From 24. JAN. 1971 to 14 JAN. 1979 is nearly exactly eight years. On and Ikko and Kazuo had kept up regular meetings in that period, they'd spent hours comparing and contrasting Western with Eastern culture. They had been fascinated by Marcel Duchamp's take on life and art and (may have) reckoned it to have as much in common with Japanese tradition as European.
But I can do better than that, surely.
The reason that Kazuo had wanted On and Ikko to come with him to his house was to show them the Date Painting and to show off the 83 'I GOT UP' postcards that On had sent him in 1975.
"You as well!" said Ikko. And explained to Kazuo what he meant. This instigated a three-way conversation (Jun was silent) that went on for half an hour.
Then they moved to sit down at the table. Only for On and Ikko to see that it was covered by the 83 'I GOT UP' cards, which had been laid out, message side up. They were laid out in rows and columns but in such a way as to make obvious the 20-card gap in the middle.
"I have asked you about that before, On," said Kazuo. "In 1977. But you didn't tell me the answer."
On nodded his head.
"Well?" persisted Kazuo.
"I didn't want to distract you from your work. But I can tell you now. Hiroko and I drove to the Great Lakes. In each city we stayed long enough for me to make a Date Painting and for us to visit the city's collection of 20th Century art. We were looking for work by Marcel Duchamp, in particular."
"Wow. Did you find any?"
"Oh yes, they all had something. Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis. The thing that I liked best was the 'Box-in-a-Valise. A suitcase containing about 70 miniature reproductions of his career-defining works. They had one of those in Minneapolis and another in Cleveland."
"And why didn't you trust me with this information? Indeed, why didn't you send me these Duchamp-related postcards?"
"Frank Donegan got the cards. He got the cards. I am sorry."
Kazuo looked so downcast at this that On relented, smiling. "Sorry, Kazuo. I am pulling your plonker. Around the Great Lakes, Hiroko and I were following up on our interest in Van Gogh. And Frank is very interested in him also."
"You are 'pulling my plonker', On? That is the least Japanese thing anyone has ever said to me!"
"I am 'poking your prostate'. I believe Marcel Duchamp employed such phrases on a near daily basis."
And with that the three returned to the Ishibashi house in a glass-shattered silence.
They would go on talking over the years. However, because On Kawara stopped doing his 'I GOT UP', 'I WENT' and 'I MET' in September 1979, he effectively raised the drawbridge on the rest of the world. We need to count our blessings that he did what he did so rigorously, systematically (and yet with such ambiguous result) for so long.
Amazing. I am constantly amazed by what On Kawara achieved. There is nothing in 20th Century art - that I'm aware of - that it can be compared to.
OUTRO
My old (not elderly) and much-loved friend, John Wilson, recently went to Japan on holiday with his wife, Gen, and he was under strict instructions from me to take selfies of himself with any work by On Kawara that he came across.
Here he is with a painting that On Kawara made before leaving Japan in 1959. Black Soldier is presently on display at the Ohara Museum of Art in Kurashiki, Okayama. 
Reproduced with the permission of John Wilson
Okayama. That's where On went for a few exquisite days of landscape exploration with Kazuo Okazaki back in January of 1971. Remember, dear reader?
A few days later, John was in Tokyo - in the Museum of Modern Art (MOMAT, no less) - and he sent me this:
Reproduced with the permission of John Wilson
Being eight framed warehouse drawings and two Kawara paintings from the mid 1950s.
By this time, John told me, he had asked six Japanese people whether they had ever heard of On Kawara, only to be met with the same blank stares that he receives back home in Kenilworth when he asks the same question of English people. Fame is a relative thing. An artist's fame tends not to escape the art world. And I suspect John's been asking estate agents, lawyers and marketing managers, for all that they would have been open-minded individuals.
Reproduced with the permission of John Wilson
JULY 15, 1970? That was shortly after the Kawaras began to meet the Naraharas in New York.
The two Japanese couples met in July of 1970, but not on the 15th. They met on the fifth and they met two days in a row over July22 and 23. That is, On only met Hiroko, Ikko and Keiko both days. 
…
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
The 'I WENT' map for July 22, 1970 is a thing of beauty. It shows that On (or On and Hiroko) walked over to the Naraharas place and he (or they) walked back by the same route. I deduce this because On Kawara 'GOT UP' both that day and the next at his own address.
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
Ikko and Keiko's address was 24 East 22nd Street, the flat that On and Hiroko took over in 1974
In one of his photography books, Ikko describes this flat as follows:
'For four years from May 1970, I lived at 24 East 22nd Street in New York. This street, which was lined with trees, which was rare in New York, looks a little chic during the day. "It's like a microcosm of New York," said a friend.'
I wonder if the friend was On Kawara.
'The building has a 1st floor discotheque, 2nd floor video production, 3rd floor typewriter repair company, 4th floor industrial photographer's studio, 5th floor counselling room for alcoholics, 6th floor printing factory, 8th floor psychiatrists workshop and my studio was on the 7th floor. From the window I could see the decorative walls of the nearby Flatiron Building. Sunset-lit Broadway crosses Fifth Avenue and appears to be on fire, with its famous building across, on such times as a summer evening. At such times, when I left the room, my feet would always turn toward Broadway.'
Broadway is that wide road that comes down through the middle of the previous map at an angle through the otherwise regular grid. All that Ikko Narahara was saying, was that he preferred to walk from his flat to the Kawaras along a different route to the way On walked it on July 22, 1970.
And there we must leave it. With On Kawara walking to Ikko Narahara's flat. Just as Ikko Narahara was leaving his flat to walk to On Kawara's flat by another route. One would almost think that they would never meet. One would almost think that they had never met.
Actually, let me just follow through on that point. On Kawara leaves his flat and walks to 24 East 22nd Street. He goes into the first floor discotheque, has a dance tout seul, and then returns to his home to work on the day's Date Painting. Hours later, On leaves his flat again and returns to 24 East 22nd Street. This time he goes up to the second floor and has a chat with the guy who runs the video production store after which he returns home to continue work on the Date Painting. Hours later, On leaves his flat again and returns to 24 East 22nd Street. This time he goes up to the third floor and has his typewriter, which he uses to produce his 'I MET' lists, serviced, after which he returns home to resume work on his Date Painting. Hours later, On leaves his flat again and returns to 24 East 22nd Street. This time he goes up to the fourth floor… Well, you get the idea. Those 'I WENT' maps! On Kawara was rigorous and relentless in his recording of a few facts, but he left out so much that the ambiguities just go on and on. As they do in real life.
Perhaps I should briefly return to this promising scenario. On Kawara visited the Naraharas' place the next day. He chose a slightly different route, but not the Broadway one that Ikko preferred. This time he went straight to the seventh floor and told his friend that yesterday had been a Date Painting day.
"Yes, you told me that last night. What I want to know now, is what sub-title have you chosen for JULY 22, 1970?"
"Would you like me to read the relevant paragraph from today's Times?"
"If you would."
"Six Arab commandos seized a Greek jetliner today, and, by holding the 55 other passengers and crew members as hostages, won promise of freedom for seven Arab guerrillas held in jails by the Athens Government."
"Thank God we don't live in the Middle East!"
"I fear the problems there will not be solved overnight."
"On, can you remind me of the subtitle you used for the Date Painting you made about a week ago? I mean for JULY 15, 1970."
"It was simply 'Wednesday'."
"So it was. I like that. Wednesday in New York. Wednesday in Palestine. Wednesday in Tokyo. "
"Steady on."
And they both blink.
*
How did John Wilson get on at MOT? John didn't go there, because he didn't know the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, existed. You see, I hadn't done any of this research by then, and I only found out about MOT when following up John's brief notes about his visit to MOMAT.
I now know that 1985 was a significant year in the setting up of art institutions in Tokyo and in that year both Kazuo Okazaki and Ikko Narahara donated their 'I GOT UP' runs. Ikko's went to MOMAT because his photographic work was already collected by that Museum. And Kazuo's went to MOT because he worked closely with local avant-garde sculptors and critics who were heavily tied to the metropolitan Tokyo municipal collection. His batch was funnelled into the prefecture's contemporary pool, which later formed the bedrock of MOT.
That last paragraph was largely written by AI. Can you tell?
But very, very, very, very, very little of the rest was.
On Kawara 1932 - 2014. Died aged 81
Ikko Narahara 1931 - 2020. Died aged 89
Kazuo Okazaki 1930 - 2022. Died aged 92
Let it RIP, RIP, RIP.
