Moonlight shines across the boundaries of time and place, inspiring artists, musicians, novelists, and many others.
The text in this work is the musical score of "Moonlight Sonata" by Ludwig van Beethoven interpreted into Japanese syllables. It is often thought that music has no borders, however, musical score is “Do-re-mi” in Italian, “C-D-E” in German and “Ha-ni-ho” in Japanese. Even music itself is not free from cultural borders. What I insisted on was to cross the borders between traditional and modern, Western culture and Eastern, music and calligraphy. Through my globe-trotting background, "Crossing Borders" has become one of the core ideas of my work. My aim is to embody purity, transience, and holiness of a full moon by crossing the borders and merging them together. I sought to reach the night sky that attracted people, past and present.
After several miscarriages and empty time without creating any work, I retreated to my room and devoted myself to my work day and night. Writing to meditate and writing to embrace myself. Writing has a soothing effect, as can be seen from the fact that the act of writing is adopted into various religions around the world, however, there is no better tool than the Japanese traditional kana characters to create such a work filled with suffering. Kana characters were in particular the characters that Japanese aristocratic women had used since the Middle Ages to vent their feelings and express themselves. Creating my artworks using kana characters has filled my empty heart.
Unfortunately, kana characters were abandoned and forgotten in Japan due to its complexity and the difficulty in passing down and acquiring the necessary skills. The Japanese government made a decision in 1900 to exclude these characters from school education. As Charles Chaplin has presciently described in his film, anything inefficient was banned in “Modern Times”.
In my creation, I use only one type of brush and inkstone. Similar to the Western pointillism artist who create images by the contrast of dots, my works are created by the contrast of characters, which I produce through the pressure I give to my brush. This unique art style is possible since I use my technique as a master of Japanese traditional calligraphy.
I must say, creating images through fluid and finely written characters is very time-consuming, however, I am proud to be inefficient. I believe that the massive time I spent writing to cure myself penetrates through my artworks and is capable of curing whoever who stands before my artworks and spends time to gaze them.
Copyright © 2010-2025 Kaoru Akagawa All Rights Reserved.
Moonlight Sonata
2013
墨、画用紙
額装寸法: 112 cm x 42 cm
Inspired by Ludwig Beethoven
