Vatican City () – On Friday, November 22, the ceremony for the delivery of the Ratzinger Prize 2024the award assigned by the homonymous Foundation that since 2011, on behalf of Benedict XVI, rewards personalities who have distinguished themselves in scientific research of a theological nature. For the first time this year, among the two winners – along with the American theologian Cyril O’Regan – there is an Asian personality: the Japanese sculptor Etsurō Sotoo, originally from Kyoto, who has been working in Barcelona on the works of the Sagrada Familia for 46 years. , the cathedral as visionary as it is full of meaning commissioned by Antonio Gaudí (1852-1926), the great architect whose cause for beatification is currently underway. It was Benedict XVI himself who, on November 7, 2010, presided in Barcelona over the solemn ceremony of consecration of this place so significant for our time. We publish extensive excerpts from the speech given by Etsurō Sotoo at the award ceremony.
When I first arrived in Barcelona from Japan, in 1978, I remember feeling like a foreigner in a strange land. Every street, every corner, seemed full of stories and symbols that, at first, seemed strange to me. However, when I started working with stone, when I picked up the chisel and started carving, I knew that stone has its own language, a language that does not need translation, and that is why I came to look for stone from Japan to Europe.
The stone is great art or something more. Art, in its purest form, is a universe of stone, to the end of the universe where no one has gone and we cannot go, but I know that the stone is there.
Working on the Sagrada Familia made me realize that, although we come from different cultures, we share a common essence that can be expressed not only through art, because I discovered that Gaudí had a somewhat oriental intuition. Over time I began to feel that my Japanese roots and this Catalan land were connected, like two branches of the same tree, which meet in the spirituality of creation. I want to explain the fruits and leaves on which I worked: more than 200 pieces, each one weighed more or less a ton, each piece finished in five days, that is, on Monday I brought the stone and on Friday I delivered it. Nobody knew then what they were for. Gaudí’s disciples had ordered me to put fruits with leaves underneath, fruits on stone; Above the fruits, colored Venetian mosaic, and below fruits and leaves in stone. But why, what does it mean? Understanding it was necessary to sculpt, because a sculptor is not limited to cutting meaningless or meaningless stone, and if he did not understand it, he could not work. So I investigated, but since no one knew, I had to invent. We grow through words. And we ourselves are fruits, I say it with the words of Pope Ratzinger: “We are fruits of nature.”
Not only should we respect nature, Gaudí said that nature is its own owner, for example fruits and leaves. In Japan, in nature without leaves, fruits do not grow or ripen. In Japan, we grow and mature through words, because we write words with signs. The ideogram of Kotoba, a word composed of two signs: ‘say’ and ‘leaves’, literally means ‘to make a leaf with the saying’. My heart tells me that with this truth people feel or learn, and that here lies the secret that animated Gaudí: leaves and fruits as a symbol of the growth of our soul, because this temple is an instrument to make us grow. I imagine that Gaudí did not know the Japanese language, but since he learned from nature, that is, nature was his teacher, and our culture also comes from nature, we arrived at the same answer.
This is how I immersed myself in the spirit of this work, feeling deeply Japanese and at the same time a son of this city, like a seed that was born in Japan and flew to Barcelona, a Mediterranean city, a rich land where it grows, adapts and develops a lot. beyond my expectations. In each sculpture, in each figure that I have sculpted, I have wanted to transmit something of that duality, of that meeting of worlds that enriches, adds and deepens our identity, because the more different the cultures that come together, the newer and stronger the culture that is born.
Perhaps there is no better example of this than the Nativity Portal, where angel musicians and a children’s choir celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus. For me, these sculptures are not just stone figures. They are a hymn to life, an attempt to capture those children in stone as if they were my own living children, as if each figure were about to move, dance or sing. This is Gaudí’s secret: he always looked for shapes that made the stone statue seem alive, in motion.
When I started working with stone, a very old man came to visit me and told me: ‘That boy is me, when I was nine or ten years old I played ball in front of the Sagrada Familia and every time Mr. Gaudí passed by we stopped the game. , we stopped as a sign of respect. One day this Mr. Gaudí approached me and, putting his hand on my head, said: ‘I’ll give you a candy if you act as a model.’ I didn’t know what a model was, so I went with my friends to visit his studio.
I didn’t expect to see a living model of that facade, I thought they were all dead. Isn’t that what we all feel inside? That impulse to get closer, to touch the divine. It is not simply about making a figure, much less a monument, but about making something real. The baby Jesus who is there is not made of stone, everyone wants to see him as he was two thousand years ago, where he really existed, everyone wants to be there, together with the Magi, present at the most important and magnificent event of that moment.
People wonder how construction can continue without Gaudí. Art is not that someone has made a mistake and we follow that wrong path, art is, like science, the search for the correct answer, because even if Gaudí has gone and left no data, if we look where Gaudí looked, he always we find the correct answer. This is my way of building the Sagrada Familia.
Today, almost a century and a half after Gaudí began the work, we are closer than ever to seeing the Sagrada Familia completed. But I wonder: even when the architectural project is finished, is it really possible for a work like this to be finished? Can something that is growing be said to be finished? The Sagrada Familia is not just a construction; It is a symbol of our ability to create something greater than ourselves, something that endures, that transcends. Gaudí said: “The longer we delay, the better, because the owner of that house is in no hurry.” I would add that this temple is an eternal instrument that builds us: Pope Benedict said in his homily that ‘the Church does not consist of itself; It is called to be a sign and an instrument.
Personally I know that my mission in this work is not over. There will always be something more to do, some detail to perfect, some space to fill with meaning, something to restore and improve. Gaudí said that his true client was God and I think that, in some way, all of us who work here feel that same vocation. My job is not only to sculpt the stone, but to give it life, to transmit through it the faith and love that Gaudí dreamed of. Always thinking: how can we give happiness to this great customer, God? The answer is: let’s simply try to make ourselves happy, like every parent feels happy when they see their children happy, loved.
Therefore, as long as there is a spark of creativity, as long as there is a stone waiting to be carved, I will remain here, serving this work with humility and devotion. Meanwhile, let’s try to improve the work, learning, building ourselves as human beings.
For me, the Holy Family is not just a building under construction: it is a prayer that rises, a song that celebrates the greatness of God and the nobility of the human spirit. And I know that, in this place, I will always find a home, a reason to move forward, a purpose that fills my heart. We are simply a note within the score that harmonizes the music of God.
When I see visitors marvel at the sculptures, stopping to observe every detail, I know that my work, our work, makes sense. The work of the Holy Family is an invitation to dialogue with God, to peace, to communion. And this is, ultimately, what gives me strength. I feel that my life, my culture, my history and each of the days that I have dedicated to this basilica have not only been worth it, but that I feel built by it, not it by me.
The Sagrada Familia will continue to be a beacon of hope and love for all who visit it. And I, as long as God and destiny allow me, will continue here, taking care of it, sculpting, dreaming and working so that every corner of this temple reflects the divine light, that light that unites us and reminds us that, in the end, “we are all one in love.”
“ECCLESIA IN ASIA” IS THE ASIANEWS NEWSLETTER DEDICATED TO THE CHURCH IN ASIA
WOULD YOU LIKE TO RECEIVE IT EVERY SUNDAY IN YOUR EMAIL? SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER IN THIS LINK
Add Comment