村上隆さんのインスタグラム写真 - (村上隆Instagram)「It has been 10 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake. I would like to extend my deepest condolences to those who have lost their lives. I pray for their souls. While I cannot even begin to imagine how the surviving relatives must feel, I truly sympathize with them. I myself was in my studio in Miyoshi, Saitama Prefecture at the time. There was a power outage when the big shake hit, and we had to immediately open all the doors to the studio manually as the locking systems were all electric. Looking back, I remember a lot of details, including how it was still cold then. Subsequently the Fukushima nuclear power plant was submerged by seawater with the tsunami and exploded, causing the sky to turn rainbow-color (at least that’s how it looked to me). I asked all my employees to take some time off and, afterwards, fled to Kansai myself. Once evacuated, I contemplated what I might be able to do to help, and I came up with an idea for charity. I consulted with Mr. François Pinault, the owner of Christie’s @christiesinc, and Mr. Larry Gagosian @gagosian, both of whom kindly and willingly consented to assist me, and was able to realize a charity auction. Fifteen artists—Zeng Fanzhi, Mark Grotjahn, Damien Hirst, Thomas Houseago, KAWS, Jeff Koons, Friedrich Kunath, Mr., Yoshitomo Nara, Gabriel Orozco, Anselm Reyle, Cindy Sherman, Aya Takano, and Luc Tuymans—generously donated their works for auction at Christie’s (I did as well, of course), with a pre-sale speech and poetry reading by actor Ken Watanabe. We were able to raise $8,756,100, and donated it to the Japan Foundation, GlobalGiving, and International Medical Corps. I am truly grateful to everyone who supported the effort. (Cont.)」3月11日 9時13分