Artist's comment
His teacher, Inoue Mitsutsuna, has created a six-panel folding screen called "Okancho" (National Museum of Modern Art).
I still remember the shock I felt when I first encountered this work.
I felt a surge of emotion, as if a long-forgotten memory was being revived.
The flat piece is a collage of forms extracted from his life's work, "Herd of Cows," but it is reminiscent of ancient Chinese bronze vessels, and conveys a certain resonance.
There was a realization of how far a painting can reach.
In Tsurezuregusa by Kenko Hoshi, it is written, "Generally, the sound of the bell should be in the tone of a yellow bell. This is the tone of impermanence, the sound of Mujoin Temple in Gion-shoja."
The pitch that a mother sings to her baby in a low voice to lull him to sleep is called the Yellow Bell pitch.
Originally, it was one of the six tones of gagaku music, and when you go back to color, it was the skin color of the Asian race, a color that we have become so accustomed to that we have forgotten it.
The lullabies I heard as a baby are also buried deep in my memory.
This is a story that Mitsutsuna told me while he was alive.
The sound of the evening bell is like a mother's lullaby, and as I think of that voice, I am immersed in the lingering echoes of ancient times.
Ken Matsubara
