There is an oil painting in my study.  The top of the mountain covered with fresh snow rises into the sky in the middle, coniferous trees with branches bent under the weight of snow in the left and broadleaf trees are spread in the right.  A clear stream flows down through several small waterfalls from the foot of the mountain to the front.  It seems to be autumn and leaves are falling.  The size of the picture is approximately 90 x 60 centimeters (size 30) and put in my own made wooden frame painted in gold. 

The picture bought in Paris

In 1977, I went to Romania, East Germany (in those days) and Yugoslavia (in those days) on business many times and often stopped off in Paris on my return trip to Japan.  Several European airlines had been put into operation between typical European cities and Tokyo.  As I was interested in Paris very much those days, I usually used Air France.  By negotiation, the air line provided me a hotel in Paris for one night free of charge on condition that I use the same air line from a East European city to Tokyo via Paris. 

I stayed at Hotel Concorde la Fayette provided by Air France on that day.  The hotel was located near the ring highway about 1 kilometer to the west of the Arch of Triumph (Arc de Triomphe) through Champs Elysees.  I often used this hotel as it was near the subway (Metro) station and the shuttle buses from the airports, both Charles de Gaulle and Villeneuve-Orly stop just in front of the hotel. 

There was a small art gallery in the basement of the hotel and about one hundred pieces of oil paintings were lined up on the walls and floor in a disorderly fashion.  As I dropped in the gallery every time I stayed in the hotel, I had got to know the shopkeeper of the gallery.  I tried to select a good one and decided to buy one finally.  It was rather hard work for me to select only one among one hundred pictures. 

I asked the owner of the gallery the name of the mountain but he did not know.  If it is a mountain in the European Alps, you can find a cottage or a farmer’s house or something artificial but there was no sign of anyone in the picture.  I thought that it must be one of the Himalaya Mountains far from any human dwelling.  I asked the owner to remove it from the frame because it is too large to carry in the airplane and roll it to pack in a paper tube. 

Map of Pakistan

After returning to Japan, I tried to find a suitable frame for the picture in several frame shops but I could not find.  So I decided to make a frame myself finally.  Cutting a square piece of lumber into four pieces of the rims of the frame and assembled on a thin board, sandpapered, dabbed with polishing powder and painted in gold.  Despite that the picture had been hanged on the wall in our living room for more than 20 years, I had lost interest in finding the origin about the mountain till then. 

I had been working in one of the plastic film production plant suppliers in Japan.  We entered into a contract with a company in Pakistan and I started to take charge of the project in 1993.  The plant site was in a small town named Hattar in North West Frontier Prefecture located about 45 kilometers to the west of Islamabad.  The high way from Islamabad leads to Khyber Pass, an Afghanistan border through Peshawar.  There was an Afghan's refugee camp near the load, although it was before bombing by USA. 

There was a munitions factory and the area was surrounded by fence with a gate to shut out from outside.  In the territory, there were houses for executive members, stores, medical clinic, hotel and so on. 

I usually made a rule of staying in the hotel in Islamabad where the customer’s head office was located and moved to the plant site by car every day.  As I had a lot of work at the factory when I visited in 1999, I asked the customer to book a hotel near the plant site.  That was the “POF Hotel” located in the territory. 

I arrived at the hotel after finishing my work in the plant.  At first, I noticed an oil painting familiar with me hanging on the wall in a small lobby.  The composition of the picture is almost the same as what I have in my home but the mountain is not so accentuated as my picture and the stones on the riverbanks were cropped out due to the small quantity of stagnant water.  The season is spring or early summer while mine is in autumn.  The picture is wider than mine and I found a different signature on it. 

The picture in POF Hotel

I asked a person at the reception desk, “If this mountain isn’t K2 !”  He said, “Yes.”  I had known that K2 is the second highest mountain on Earth and located in the northern area of Pakistan but I had not imagined that the mountain in the picture is K2.  A strange twist of fate brought me the answer to my question lasted for 22 years and I felt that my visit to Hattar was predicted when I bought the picture 22 years ago in Paris. 

Since then, Pakistan has become my familiar country and I have many friends there.  They are all gentle, kind, sincere and religious.  I send a mail worrying about my friend’s safety when I hear the news about the earthquake.  On the other hand, when I tell them that I got out of physical condition, I receive mails from every friend saying that I prayed to God for you today. 

[Note] K2: The mount K2 is the second highest mountain on Earth located in the northern areas of Pakistan on the border between Pakistan and China.  With a peak elevation of 8,611 meters, K2 is a part of the Karakoram segment of the Himalayan range.  At the time of the measurement of the height of the mountains, all unnamed mountains were labeled K1, K2, K3, K4 and K5 giving the initial letter of Karakoram.  Although all other mountains than K2 have been named, K2 is still called as the label number for measuring.