早前於福島縣立美術館舉辦的「安西水丸插畫展」展出安西水丸超過700件作品，當中包括插畫、廣告海報和書籍等，大部分為原作，令人能一窺他豐富的想像力和幽默風趣的個性。自2014年逝世後，幾乎每年都有安西先生大大小小的展覽，他的畫作都有著孩童般稚嫩笨拙的線條和溫暖明亮的色調，文字則生動幽默中見細緻溫馨，使不同年齡的人都能從中找到樂趣。
曾為日本作家村上春樹的著作繪畫封面及插畫，安西的畫風曾被村上稱為「像小學生畫的一樣」，但卻與他的幽默筆觸十分契合，村上也認為他的文章能配上安西的畫作是非常幸福的事。長達超過三十年的合作，他們私底下也是親如兄弟，會一起喝酒、出遊，亦會經常公開取笑對方。
在《村上朝日堂反擊》一書中，安西示範畫一個鬧脾氣的村上，畫上簡單的圓臉、頭髮和眉眼後，於一邊眉毛加上直線就完成了。村上說曾在街上被讀者認出，大都說因為在安西的畫中看見過他的臉，這也不禁令村上懷疑自己的輪廓是否如此簡單。
除了安西的插畫經常伴隨村上的文章，村上也愛把他們之間有趣的軼事記錄下來。如《村上春樹雜文集》中便提到有次他請安西為新居的和式紙門作畫，安西怕太快完成會讓人覺得馬虎，便在房間看報紙，待久了才開始畫，最後花了十幾秒來畫一座富士山和魚，後來客人來訪看到了以為是布丁和小魚乾，令人忍俊不禁。
安西水丸的幽默個性和灑脫的生活態度於清新童趣的畫中表露無遺，予人一種親切溫暖的感覺，也叫人學會不用以太複雜的心思去看待事物，因為它們本來就很簡單。
Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art recently held an exhibition showcasing more than 700 pieces of Mizumaru Anzai’s works including illustrations, advertising posters, and books, among which most are the originals. Viewers could get a good glimpse into his creative and humorous mind. Ever since Anzai passed away in 2014, there have been exhibitions of different scales on his works. His designs are known for the somewhat childish outline and the use of warm and bright color, the texts he wrote are humorous and warm; people of all age groups can easily identify with his works.
Anzai had as well drawn some book covers and illustrations for Haruki Murakami, who described Anzai’s style as “pictures drawn by a primary school child”, but amusingly complements his humorous way of writing. In fact, Murakami found it a blessing to have Anzai’s illustration spicing up his words. The two of them had their first collaboration more than 30 years ago, they were also close friends in their private lives. They would drink and travel together and even openly teased one another.
On the book cover of Murakami Asahido no Gyakushu (Return of the Murakami Asahido), Anzai drew a grumpy Murakami — an extraordinarily simple illustration of a round face, dark hair, two lines of eyebrows, and a thin line extended from one of the eyebrows to make him look like frowning. Regardless of how childlike this illustration is, there are readers who claim to recognize Murakami because of Anzai’s drawing, this makes Murakami sometimes wonder if his facial features are indeed so simple.
Anzai’s contribution to Murakami’s works is not limited to his illustrations. From time to time, Murakami would mention his interaction with Anzai in his books. In his essay collection, Murakami talked about the time when he invited Anzai to draw on the screen panels for his new apartment. Anzai was worried that people might find him unmindful if he finished his work too quickly, therefore, he spent quite some time reading newspaper in the room before actually starting to draw. In the end, he only spent less than 20 seconds to draw the Mount Fuji and fishes. The hilarious thing was that when Murakami’s guests came to visit, they thought those were pudding and dried anchovies.
Mizumaru Anzai fully demonstrated his playful and relaxed attitude through his childlike drawings. They are so comforting to look at and manage to remind people of the importance of having a simple mind because it is not a good habit to over-complicate things.
安西一向喜愛繪畫桌上的物品，而作為一個雪景球愛好者，他畫得最多的就是雪景球，同時也因為收藏了過千個雪景球，而成為了東京世田谷區雪景球美術館的名譽會長。
Anzai was always fond of drawing the random items lying on his desk, one good example would be the snow globe — one of his favorite items and a recurrent subject of his illustrations. As an owner of over a thousand snow globes, Anzai held the title of Honorary President of Snowdome Museum in the Tokyo Setagaya area.
《動物園》，收錄在村上春樹的短篇《夜之蜘蛛猴》
“Zoo” in Murakami’s short story collection Spider Monkey of the Night.
unun_www.ununliving.com
