Children are geniuses at play.

A crosswalk becomes a suspension bridge in the valley. Overstepping any of the crosswalk’s painted white lines means you go tumbling off the bridge. So, everyone hops from one white line to the next.

When it rains, it’s sports day on a classroom window. Kids guess which raindrop will reach the goal first.

I recalled these memories of my long-past childhood after I saw an exhibition of works by Chihiro Iwasaki (1918-1974) at the Chihiro Art Museum in Tokyo’s Nerima Ward. The event was titled “ASOBO” (literally, “Let’s play”).

Iwasaki typically painted watercolor pictures........

© The Asahi Shimbun