Comment

I wanted to paint animals as much as I could on a wide, pure white wall.

With this in mind, I decided to paint “Birds and Animals in the City” instead of “Birds and Animals in the Flower” as a tribute to the world-renowned painter of the Edo period, Ito Jakuchu. I was inspired to make the different spaces where animals, trees, and the city are interwoven, and even the view of Tokyo from the room, a part of the artwork. The underwater creatures paired with the land animals are a giant turtle and hermit crab from a series that fuses the city and animals, which is one of my specialties.
The “A-Un”(Agyo and Ungyo)” symbolized by the mouths of the two guardian dogs is said to represent the beginning and the end of all things. As you go to the right from the “Agyou” guardian dogs, the twelve signs of the zodiac appear one after another, starting with the “Rat” and ending with the “Boar” before finally returning to the “Ungyou” guardian dogs.

I put all my feelings into this room, the “hymn to life” and the “long cycle of years” that I want to express as a painter.