By Tetsuharu Hanazaki, Senior Technical Engineer, mPLAT

Morris Louis “Pillar of Fire”
image source
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-3918168

This week, the topic is the diversification of human resources.

NRI has adopted a deep, vibrant navy as its main corporate color.
This color symbolizes “digital technology, a spirit of challenge, and an intellectual and humane quality”. 

Morris Louis’s “Dalet Shin”.
This colorful painting was on display in the “Trialogue” exhibit at the Yokohama Museum of Art.

The name “Dalet Shin” was given to the work after Louis’ death, and is a combination of the 4th and 21st letters in the Hebrew alphabet. It was created for the purpose of organizing his work, and is not a name given by the artist himself.

A painting by Morris Louis, specifically 1961’s “Pillar of Fire” adorns the cover of a novel by Haruki Murakami, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.

The painting consists of nine colored lines—orange, green, mustard yellow, yellow, navy, green, red, yellow, and mustard yellow—floating on a blank white background.
NRI’s main color, navy blue, is right there in the middle.
We see here a variety of colors asserting themselves, and they even appear to be representing the diversity of humanity.

Back in February 2009, when Haruki Murakami received the Jerusalem Prize, he gave a speech. 

He said, “Each of us possesses a tangible, living soul. The System has no such thing. We must not allow The System to exploit us. We must not allow The System to take on a life of its own. The System did not make us: We made The System.”

As a company that works with digital technologies, we may tend to lose sight of emotions.
Perhaps the act of appreciating a painting could help to foster a diversification of human resources that are “intelligent and humane”, as espoused in NRI’s brand identity.