Kiyoto Maruyama is one of two remaining “Penki-eshi” (Sento painters) in Tokyo. Today he is painting the back wall of Fujino-yu, but as we arrive he climbs down from the scaffolding, walks through the coffee cans and paint tins to sit down in front of us. His track pants and slip on canvas shoes are coated in a dense patina of blue and white paint and behind his seated silhouette, today’s wet, half-finished portrait of Mt. Fuji is drying in the afternoon sunlight.
“Sometimes they request that I paint in the middle, for both baths,” Moriyama gestures to the wall space above the partition between male and female baths, “but I don’t like that because then I will have to paint the holy mountain much bigger. Big mountains are scary.” Sento painting, today is neither lucrative nor easy and Moriyama is lucky to paint five Sento a month these days. Compared to the ’70s when he was painting daily. He turns to look at his equipment, “these days young people don’t have the concentration or patience to become good at something like this. After Nakajima and his assistant, there will be no more Sento painters. It is sad.”
Continue reading this article over at the Papersky website.
