Leaves of Words

Tsuneo Nakazawa

Satoshi Nemoto

Shinya Yamamura

Ippodo Gallery is pleased to present Leaves of Word. Three masters delve into modern interpretations of Japanese script in three unique materials: calligraphy written by Satoshi Nemoto, forged iron sculpted by Tsuneo Nakazawa, and raden lacquer inlaid with mother-of-pearl by Shinya Yamamura.

"Japanese poetry takes the human heart as its seed and grows into myriad leaves of words." Preface to the Kokin Wakashū, the earliest kana anthology written by the author

—Ki no Tsurayuki c. 905.

Kana emerged in the ninth century, when Japanese writers began abbreviating Chinese characters into a phonetic script of their own. In the Heian court, it flourished as the language of poetry and love letters—supple, cursive, and written in a single continuous breath; as much drawing as writing. A thousand years later, kana remains the writing of ordinary Japanese life while retaining its artistic origins. The exhibition features Nemoto’s original works of calligraphy written in Japanese kana, the strokes of each character overlayed and flowing. Nakazawa sculpts kana—from works written by Japan’s historical figures—in iron with inochige ("life brush"): a calligraphy term referring to the continuity of the line. Each work is fluid and unbroken in metal. Yamamura meticulously integrates the script into his tea caddies and incense boxes using traditional mother-of-pearl inlay.

Satoshi Nemoto (b. 1984) works with traditional brushes and rare washi, preserving the traditions of the Heian period. The historical inheritance in his practice carries through his mark making: strokes unfold as metaphorical landscapes in which water cascades, branches sway, and wind hums with the same classical elegance Heian literature, now brought into the present. Nemoto’s twelve new "Flow" series works range in size compositionally on paper in hues of white, brown, and blue. The collection elaborates upon two waka poems of his own making: “Woven by threads of rain, the flower opens into color; from a heart so dyed, the leaves of words are spun,” and “In moonlight leaking through the trees — is it the presence of blossoms, or the breath of the branches?”

Tsuneo Nakazawa (b. 1973) drew from classic texts of waka poems to forge nine works in iron; the central themes focus on the moon and concept of yūgen—the elusive and profound meaning of life prized by the poets of the historical Heian and Kamakura eras. Among the texts-given-form are verses by the writers Saigyō, Fujiwara no Ietaka, Fujiwara no Yoshitsune, and Ōe no Chisato. Their waka poems were recorded in anthologies such as the Kokin Wakashū and Shin Kokin Wakashū, and the Shin Chokusen Wakashū. As sculptures, light casts the shadow of the kana calligraphy onto the wall behind. The closing words by Tsurayuki in the earliest kana anthology impart a timeless message: to grasp the heart of poetry is to look back at the past, and long for the present as one gazes at the moon in a wide sky.

Shinya Yamamura (b. 1960) contributes a group of lidded boxes set with the iridescent interiors of limpet shells, among them abalone and oyster, which are extracted and cut by hand, then prepared into the shapes of kana characters. The raden technique—the inlay of mother-of-pearl into urushi lacquer—is a quintessentially Japanese technique of ancient origins. Now the president of Kanazawa College of Art, Yamamura’s technically impressive approach modernizes the medium while referencing the aesthetics of classical literature.

The flowing nature of kana script evokes a visual language before any linguistic meaning. Each stroke inherently possesses rhythm, a breath in the spaces intentionally left between. When realized in raden lacquer and forged iron, the rhythm is given physical form. Set in lacquer by Yamamura, kana script catches the light in shifting color. Hammered into iron by Nakazawa, each mark becomes weighted and casts a shadow. Together the three artists trace one script from brush to iron to lacquer, and one idea from the ninth century to the present.

The exhibition is accompanied by an essay on Nemoto's calligraphy by Sadako Ohki, Ph.D., the Former Japan Foundation Associate Curator of Japanese Art, Department of Asian Art, Yale University Art Gallery.