Why I Put the Phrase “The True Evolution of Humanity” in My Work
There is a phrase that I include in some of my artworks:
“The True Evolution of Humanity.”
(written in Japanese as “人間の真の進化”)
Alongside my artist name, I sometimes wonder if adding these words makes my work seem even more mysterious—or perhaps a little suspicious.
Even so, why do I keep putting them in my work?
Because this is a message I want to shout out loud to people all around the world.
I have tried countless times to express this idea through different kinds of visuals, but so far, I haven’t found an image that truly feels right.
But I still, somehow, desperately want to express it!!!
So at some point, I thought:
“Fine! I’ll just put it into the work as words!”
And that’s what I’ve been doing.
As for why I choose to express things through words within my artworks, that’s another long story, so I’ll write about that in a separate article.
What Does “The True Evolution of Humanity” Mean?
“The True Evolution of Humanity” means exactly what it says:
human beings truly evolving in the fullest sense of the word.
To me, that means every possible field—science, medicine, food, the environment, culture, sports, and countless others—developing and evolving in positive ways that enable human beings to live better lives.
And of course, all of this must be based on the fundamental premise that we coexist with this planet and all the other living beings with whom we share it.
And what would make this possible?
I believe it may be a world where:
everyone, everywhere, can do what they want, whenever they want, and as much as they want.
Why?
Because I believe in the idea that when you love what you do, you naturally become good at it.
If we could create such a world, I believe human beings would naturally evolve in a more positive and highly efficient way.
How Was the Phrase “The True Evolution of Humanity” Born?
The idea that eventually led to this phrase was born before I ever started making art.
I had always felt that something was missing from my life. As I approached the age of forty and began thinking seriously about changing careers, I started asking myself, in great depth:
What kind of work, in what kind of industry, would truly make me feel fulfilled?
What I felt strongly at the time was this:
“I want to create something that has a positive impact on people all around the world simply by existing.”
It was also around this time that the rapid evolution of AI was becoming increasingly apparent.
I began reading books about the field, partly to gather information, and partly to deepen my thoughts about the future.
And then I was amazed.
AI and technology had advanced far beyond what I had imagined.
At the same time, I felt a sense of hope.
“Perhaps, in the relatively near future, we might actually be able to create a world where people everywhere can live by doing the things they love.”
And Then Came 2023
Time passed, and it was 2023.
After a lot had happened, I had finally allowed myself to honestly embrace the desire to express all the dark, tangled emotions and thoughts that had been building up inside me through art.
(If you want to know how I came to start making art, please read “Why I Quit My Corporate Job to Make Art.”)
I began expressing myself little by little, but I still didn’t fully understand what it was that I was so desperate to shout out to the world.
I could have simply kept creating without figuring it out.
But knowing my own personality, I wanted to understand it clearly.
And once I did, I wanted to create with everything I had.
While I was still creating almost unconsciously, one thing kept emerging, whether I wanted it to or not:
anger toward war and the endless struggle over what we possess.
Having been born and raised in Japan, I had always carried a strong desire for peace within me.
And yet, no matter how much time passed, wars never disappeared from the world.
If anything, it sometimes seemed as though humanity was returning to them.
I began to wonder:
Is this behavior, repeated throughout human history, simply part of human nature?
With that question—and a sense of unease—I began looking into the history of humanity.
And what I found was that humans began killing other humans after people started settling down and living permanently in one place.
It was the struggle over land that had driven people to do it.
In other words,
perhaps it wasn’t human nature after all.
I felt a profound sense of relief.
If that was the case, then just as I had once felt hopeful about the future of technology,
a world in which human beings could truly evolve should be possible.
A New Era of Human Evolution
I began to feel strongly that perhaps now is the time to put an end to the history of destruction and regeneration that humanity has repeated again and again,
and to evolve into the next era.
On this beautiful planet we call Earth,
perhaps now is the time for human beings to truly evolve as human beings.
That is what I want to shout out loud to people all around the world.
And that is how these words were born.
That is why I put them into my work.
The True Evolution of Humanity
September 30, 2026
mienaimonotachi
みえないものたち
