The Cadaqués of black rocks and twilight light by the painter Koyama
The Japanese artist has lived in the Empordà village since 1970.
CadaquésThe tramontana wind, bitterly cold this mid-November Monday, howls furiously through the narrow, steep streets of Cadaqués, deserted today, with closed doors and windows and drawn shutters on bars and restaurants, all displaying signs announcing extended holidays. Quietude, tranquility, and the only sound, the onslaught of the tramontana. This is the Cadaqués that the Japanese painter Shigeyoshi Koyama loves, the Cadaqués he so desperately misses during the summer, when the revelry and noise take over the town day and night, forcing him into exile in the quiet village of Vilanova de la Muga until September, when the summer visitors leave and Cadaqués returns.
The Cadaqués of these cold days is also the Cadaqués that reminds Koyama of that image that so deeply affected him when he first arrived in the winter of 1970. Like love at first sight, this little town with its whitewashed facades reflected in the bay and nestled within the unique topography of Cap de Creus exerted an extraordinary magnetism on the painter. "At that very moment, I decided I would stay and live there for the rest of my life," he recalls. And so it was.
He arrived in Cadaqués by accident. Born in the Japanese city of Sakai, at the age of 30 he decided to distance himself from the artistic circles of his country, where he felt out of place, and settled in Paris for six months, until one day he decided to take a night train that dropped him off at the Cervera station. It was August 1970, and he found lodging in a small, modest guesthouse in Vilajuïga. "In October, everything was deserted, and I embarked on an adventure: hitchhiking, I got into the first car that stopped, and luckily for me, it took me to Cadaqués," he remembers.
Koyama welcomes us to his studio, on the upper floor of his house, located in the upper part of the village, overlooking the sea he has painted so often in his distinctive style. His daughter, Yasuko, accompanies us. Born in Cadaqués 48 years ago and married to a local man, Yasuko works as a translator of Japanese literature into Catalan. One of her first projects was translating the successful animated series. Shin Chan She works for TV3 and currently collaborates with Ferran Adrià and Albert Raurich on the Bullipèdia, a program dedicated to Japanese cuisine. "I enjoy all of this because I learn so much about Japan," says Yasuko.
Black rocks in the twilight
In the painter's studio, the walls are covered with canvases, some recent, and on the palette are traces of oil paint of a single color: black. "This year everything I'm painting is black and white, and also gray, like in Japanese ink painting, although here I use oil," says Koyama. "I know black is harder to sell, that people want color, but eyes have a heart, and my eyes perceive things this way," he explains. Black and grays hold a prominent place in all of Koyama's work: they are the colors with which he paints the rocks of the Cadaqués landscape, imposing, rounded, predominant against a sky and sea that are often yellowish or reddish, because the artist likes to paint "in the twilight, when the sun has set but hasn't yet set behind it." "That's when I like Cadaqués the most," he confesses.
At 85, he still paints and rarely leaves the house. "I only go out for walks because it's essential for my health," he says. His walks usually last an hour and a half, and he often makes the trek all the way to Portlligat. He avoids going into the town center, especially in summer, and this has gradually distanced him from social life, although he maintains close friendships with neighbors and people who have settled in the town, such as Patrick Domken and his wife, Lali Garriga, who run an art gallery where many of the new residents who have bought homes in the municipality have purchased Koyama's works. He also maintains close friendships with Pere Vehí, owner of the emblematic Bar Boia, now closed due to coastal regulations, and a cultural manager who has promoted numerous exhibitions and publications related to art. And with the fishermen who taught him to fish for sea bream with a rod, one of his great passions, which he can no longer practice. "I've lost my strength and I risk falling, since sea bream are caught when the easterly wind blows and there are waves," he says.
Longing for the quiet village of the 70s
Although he doesn't plan to return to his native Japan, Koyama admits that he finds it increasingly difficult to live in Cadaqués: "It's no longer the peaceful town I found when I arrived; now speculation reigns. The French buy houses as investments, and prices have skyrocketed." He misses the silence and discipline of his homeland. "I grew up without knowing what vacations were, and here I see them as debauchery and drunkenness. And in restaurants, the shouting makes conversation impossible," he laments.
Koyama's current tranquil life contrasts sharply with his early years in Cadaqués, when he maintained relationships with many of the artists who lived in or frequented the town, such as Salvador Dalí. He recalls that the Empordà-born painter was interested in the work he exhibited at the Barroco bar in Cadaqués, created with India ink and packing paper. "In French, he told me that the Empordà had adopted me. I didn't know anything about the Empordà then, but as time went on I realized that Dalí hadn't been wrong: this is my home."