I convey that there is a picture never vanished all my life. It is Hokusai Katushika’s later work, Kobo-Daishi practicing asceticism (I think some people have already seen it). The work shows that Kobo-Daishi is pulled up from hell by a dog and hemp ropes. It is neither just a religious picture nor a salvage picture through a saint. I believe it is a bona fide work with Hokusai’s politeness into the heavens, which is led by the macrocosmic conformation always passes, refuses weakness and rudeness. Incidentally, my professor, Jiro Yoshihara, always said “Be humble.”

 

  The Gutai group was the most radical artists’ group in Osaka during the 60’s and the 70’s. Keiko Moriuchi was the most remarkable female artist in this group. In those days, she laid soft toys on the floor of Gutaipinakoteka (the museum of the Gutai groupe), then surprised the audience by the overwhelming visual impact. When I saw her for the first time, I remember clearly that I was surprised again because she was a beautiful girl and still a teenager.

  After the Gutai group broke up, from 1976, Moriuchi developed various ways of expression by herself; for example, installation, carving, printing, ceramics, wall painting, environment spatial design, and collaboration with terpsichorean art. The style is not always the same but the depicted image, whether it is objective or abstract, should have some kind of deep spiritual semantic content. In addition, you can see her original characteristic of the art works from the point which is symbolic of the unremitting dynamic relationship between human beings and high leveled spiritual existence beyond them.

  In recent years, Moriuchi has been creating lots of paintings which deal with peaches. In Japan, peaches are the sign of longevity, good omens, and felicity. She depicts it as a figure, which seems like an ear attached on one side of a circle, or an overlap of two circles. Moreover, she makes radiant and spectacular images in a way bringing blindingly shining gold leaves to the stretch on the surface squeezed from tubes of elementary colours, such as red, yellow, and green, directly on the canvas. Moriuchi’s peach conducts our eyes and mind to a deep spiritual world through the joy of kindly sensation by three uninterrupted points: the texture of fresh paint, attractive and simulative symphonic colours, and the plentiful brightness of gold leaves.

  According to Moriuchi’s theory, kanji of “peach” is consisted by a character of “wood” and “billion”, and at the same time, the peaches on canvas may mean the huge number of them. The more she draws the peaches, the more she feels invigorated and can continue drawing a lot. Therefore, the peaches in her paintings bring full energy to the viewer’s body and mind through the attraction of enriched senses. I certainly hope that this exhibition brings huge pleasure and elation, which are for the both sides of emotion and mind, to people.