“Success Story From Japan”

This year, destiny connected me with makie-artist Matsuya-san, whom I admire and respect, and whose story inspired me to write about his success.

Matsuya-san is from Fukui Prefecture, in a very small city where he studied art from the age of twenty. Already at that time he had a dream that one day he will leave that place and will come to Tokyo, to achieve another dream which was to teach his art to students internationally, and receive work orders from prosperous-minded customers.

It wasn’t easy to achieve it; at age twenty-six, many Japanese businessmen came to him and asked him to work for them— however, he had to paint a lot at a cheap price.

After working in such “Yada” condition for sometime, Matsuya-san then decided to quit. He believed in his own talent, regarded his art form with such high value, and held close to his heart a passion to showcase the Japanese culture. He said: “Yosh”, I’m going to learn about customers myself and I will sell my art through my own hands.

For seven years, this creative and talented artist was selling his products at flea markets in Kyoto, where he learned about sales and eventually was able to move to Tokyo. From almost zero, he founded a studio in Omotesando and in five years time, Matsuya-san was able to attract new students and receive regular orders from wealthy clients.

Currently, he works directly with the Yamaha Company and top department stores all over Japan, besides having regular students who study his art. With power of thought, strong will, and high spirit he succeeded. He did not care about the economy— he did not have time to complain nor to fear of not having enough. By being connected with his own soul and his life’s purpose of bringing happiness to people through his own art, success flows to him naturally from different and unexpected sources.

I wish that through this example, some of those people who already have a vision may have more hope towards tomorrow!