deTaka was just a dentist. Until the death of David Bowie, he went to many people’s funerals and felt that people died and returned to nothing. However, three days before David Bowie’s death, he saw that Bowie had a big smile on his face, and deTaka realized – by how we express ourselves, we can leave something behind, like a fond lingering scent.

How deTaka expresses himself in his art is that the brush and the paint move freely, yet as if planned from a previous life that the colors should be so placed. Although chance is natural, he feels that his painting in the moment seems to have been decided, from something left from before.

deTaka is Japanese, and just as Japan has the ancient, traditional Japan of Kyoto, and the modern, Western-influenced Japan of Tokyo, likewise his paintings are divided into two series: those possessed of the traditional Japanese wabi-sabi aesthetic, and those of Western glamorous pop.