Sho Kishino, an artist both
emphatically Japanese and
distinctly modern, imparts
lessons in creation all artists
would be wise to imbibe.
mountains, fossilized wood dug out of
riverbeds. He uses cherry and zelkova,
branches of bog cedar, plum bark and
mulberry roots, mining yet preserving the
patina of nature's accidents and detritus:
nothing is wasted, nothing is lost. Wear and
tear, the sere signs of change, are honored
even in a newborn work of art much as we
might honor an ancestor.
One of Kishino's artistic and spiritual
ancestors, as pointed out by the Ippodo
Gallery's Shoko Aono, is the 17th century
itinerant Buddhist priest, Enku (16321695). Enku traveled throughout eastern
and northern Japan, climbing sacred
mountains and carving statues from local
timber for farmers in exchange for food and
lodging. Enku pledged to carve 120,000
Buddhist figures in his lifetime; as many as
5,300 figures have been attributed to him.
Like Kishino, Enku carved each figure from
HYLAND
