The brush washer that crossed the ocean: from Professor Inokuma to Picasso
A container of dirty brush-cleaning oil and freshly washed brushes were lined up on top of newspapers spread out across the entirety of Professor Inokuma Genichirō's studio.
When I asked, "You can't clean this oil that's that dirty, can you?" the answer was that it would be a waste of oil.
The teacher also said, "It takes half a day to peel off the paint that has stuck to the bottom of the pot, and it's a hassle that the brushes stick to each other when they are placed next to each other." That day, my father went home with homework on how to keep the brush oil from getting dirty and how to prevent brushes from kissing each other.
I realized that if I used a brush washer with a double bottom, only the paint residue would fall to the bottom and the oil would not get dirty. Then about a year later, when I was watching a movie, it was a surgery scene, and I saw a steaming tube with a spiral spool stretched over it and scalpels being inserted one after another, and it all clicked.
Thinking that he could kill two birds with one stone by replacing this with a brush, he ordered a sample from the tinsmith. He had them make prototypes countless times over the course of three years, but this one was no good, that one was no good either, and finally the tinsmith said, "Please stop. It's not about the money anymore. My brain just can't get any more dry" (sic).
It took five years for me to finally get something I was happy with, working with the art box craftsman. I ran to Mr. Inokuma, who said, "This is what I wanted. It's picturesque." All my troubles were instantly forgotten.
Eventually a patent was granted. When the Western-style painter Kazue Kunisawa took this to Tsuguharu Foujita, who was in Paris at the time, he said, "It's fun just to look at it. I wonder if my father is still thinking about it."
When Sekiguchi Shungo, a Western-style painter from Paris, visited Picasso, Picasso said,
"Japanese painters are great. They have useful things."
"The horn engraved on the lid was very nostalgic," said Sekiguchi.
