Literary Landscapes from the 8th century
Solo Exhibition "A bird sings then I weep" 個展「鳥が鳴いて私は涙する」
19.Jun - 18.Jul.2021 KATSUYA SUSUKI GALERRY
On the painting, the idea of three paintings refering to three “spring depression” Japanese poems (the 8th century) are connected.
Free distribution leaflet in which three paintings of the three “spring depression” poems in the 8th century are connected.
春の野に霞たなびきうら悲し この夕かげに鶯鳴くも
大伴家持 万葉集 巻19-4290
《The haze on the spring fields makes me feel sad.
In the evening sunshine, a nightingale is singing.》
Otomo no Yakamochi, Man'yōshū, 19-4290
我が屋戸の いささ群竹 吹く風の 音のかそけき この夕べかも
大伴家持 万葉集 巻19-4291
《In my small garden, a bamboo bush with wind
making the faint sound, in this evening, I am hearing.》
Otomo no Yakamochi, Man'yōshū, 19-4291
うらうらに照れる春日に雲雀あがり
こころ悲しもひとりしおもへば （大伴家持／万葉集 巻19-4292）
《のどかに、うららかに照れる春の日に、雲雀が空へあがってゆく。
心かなしいなぁ。ひとりで物を思っていると。》
《The weather is very calm, on the comfortable sanny spring day,
skylark is flying to the sky.I feel like sad, while I am thinking alone.》
残響の言葉たち（下西風澄） ／ 「GATEWAY201601」（YYY PRESS）より抜粋
詩文「春」（下西風澄）より
A birds sings then I weep
The exhibition was based on three waka poems written in 753 by the 8th-century poet Otomo no Yakamochi. The three waka poems were about Spring depression (Spring fever), where people look at a spring landscape and feel something sad or loneliness. The sensibility of Spring depression was influenced by his father's familiarity with Chinese poetry and developed from the Chinese view of literature in poetics (e.g. a nightingale singing in bamboo evokes the image of the absence of a friend).
The patterns in this exhibition are a combination of motifs from waka poems written by Otomo no Yakamochi related to his stay in Etchu which is a rural area in the northwest of Japan. [16th night moon, ancient Fuse lake, wisteria, deutzia, Japanese globeflower, Erythronium, genus Dianthus, hawk, snipe, nightingale, and skylark] In addition, a pattern of nightingales overlapped with the pattern in the composition as a symbol of "the absence of friends who enjoy elegant things together" which is referred from ancient Chinese literature.
Series of related works