Gallery Fake

Star in the Landscape (1x20)

Air date: May 21, 2005

Souami, also known as Shinsou, was a watercolor painter during the Muromachi period, and served the 8th shogun of the [Ashikaga shogunate]]. In the present, a space shuttle carrying Japanese astronaut Sekine-Jun is about to be launched and he recalls the time years ago when he and Fujita studied art at college. Although Sekine was skilled with watercolors and had to manage the family art gallery, his dream was to be an astronomer. He asked Fujita for funding, and promised to create a painting for him. At the same time, Fujita is coerced into guiding the international movie director, Basso, around Kyoto. Basso is unimpressed with Japanese culture until Fujita takes him to see a six-panel ink painting across folding screens by Shinsou. Meanwhile in space, Sekine uses freeze-dried coffee dissolved in water to create a unique Wabi-sabi painting for Fujita, who is not going to sell it.