ART LIVES TORIDE Where Art Is Born

My grandfather on my mother’s side was a seal engraver, and I had relatives who was painter. My mother also loved Japanese-style painting, and I grew up in an environment where I was taken to art exhibitions since I can remember. There was a time when I longed to work on a ship, but I went to an art high school, entered Tokyo University of the Arts, and am still painting today.

I had always painted realistic paintings when I started. I enjoyed the fact that the more I painted, the closer I got to what was in front of me. However, a painting is realistic because it depicts what is in front of it as it is and if it is better or worse than what is in front of it, it is not realistic. Fundamentally, I think there is a rule that says you cannot go beyond reality.

I could be free from that contradiction I have been holding on for a long time. . I relied on the reality of things, but I shifted to the point where I could draw more freely in my paintings, and that is how I came to my current style.

I think there are many different ways of thinking among artists, but I am the type of artist who wants to use colors evenly. I like to include reds, blues, and yellows, and reduce the number of missing colors in a single picture. I am an artist who wants to emphasize colors rather than shapes or motifs.

When I am painting, I also employ “wiping” as a process. By this act I create the parts that I can’t control. Sometimes it just happens to work out.

At first the paint flew off by mistake, but it was interesting to try. Oil paints are originally meant to be added on top of each other, but one of the old ways of using paints is to spread them thinly. If you paint in such a way that you can see through the paint, you can get a wide range of colors. I became hooked after I found out that there is an expression that comes out only when you wipe it off. Sometimes I end up wiping off too much.

For the past few years, I have been studying Japanese and Western art history. Although I call myself a painter, I have some resistance to calling myself a contemporary artist. I think that contemporary art comes from European culture. It feels strange for me, who grew up in Japan, to do something European.

While learning about the period when Western culture was received in Japan, I am wondering if I can create a position that successfully connects current Japanese and Western art. I use motifs that have meaning in the history of Western art, and conversely, in the history of Japanese art as well.

I hope that someday I will be able to enliven the history of Japanese art by telling people that there was such a guy. What I am doing cannot be described in the context of European art history. So I continue to study and paint, hoping to create a foundation on which I can stand.

There was a long period of time when I was embarrassed to call myself a painter. Now I am able to say that I paint pictures, and I think I have a sense of responsibility for each picture.

I first came to Toride when I entered Tokyo University of the Arts. I went on to graduate school, took a leave of absence to travel around the world before coming back to Toride. Close to 8 years have elapsed since then.

Becoming an artist, it is very important to have an environment around you where you can continue to be an artist. Some of my classmates quit because they did not have the environment to continue drawing. I myself wonder if I would have been able to continue if it were not for this collective studio called Studio Koudai.

I only have a positive influence on having people around me. It is not so much that my work changes directly, but rather the sound of wood being shaved next to me is comforting, or seeing someone working late reminds me to keep up the good work. I think this is an important environment for me to continue working.

I feel that the relationship between artist and studio is connected to artwork. Right now, I am trying to keep the space as inorganic as possible, but I don’t know how my studio will look or how my work will change in the future. My ideal is to have a hard-boiled atmosphere, like a Jack Daniel’s bottle lying around. But I don’t get that feeling from my paintings, so maybe I’m not going in that direction.