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The Ten Ox-herding Pictures
by 金森一咳 Kanamori Ichigai (1941-)
Artist and philosopher Ichigai Kanamori has been practising his unique style of zenga for many years. Born in Osaka in 1941, he began his artistic career with brush ink art and calligraphy, drawing inspiration from ancient Zen Buddhist poetry and teachings. Kanamori works from his studio in Niigata, on the Japan Sea coast, where he established Gallery Kanzan ("Cold Mountain") in 1991.
He opened his first exhibition in Shinjuku, Tokyo, in 1986; in the years since, he has held many exhibitions throughout Japan and overseas, including New Zealand in 2002. This will be his first major exhibition in Australia.
Kanamori has also published a number of books, including Ichigai's Ink Brush Portfolio (1989), a collection of his paintings, and Hotei no Fukuro (1995), a collection of haiku, philosophy and ink paintings. He has also provided artistic design to the play Hana no Sho (2004). His interests extend beyond Zen Buddhism and philosophy: as an avid fan of classical music, Kanamori has also released a series of artworks dedicated to the prolific eighteenth century composer Mozart.
Kanamori says of his art, "the reason I started drawing was to visually express Zen philosophies. What motivated me the most was my admiration for the way a drawing sympathises with poetry and calligraphy on one piece of paper. I felt that traditional Zen art had fallen victim to tradition and lost some of its spiritual message. To put Zen back on front stage I have used contrasts of thick and thin brush strokes, adding gold and silver colours, radically departing from the more delicate style of Buddhist paintings in the traditional Southern School of art in China."
Each zenga: 47cm x 46cm
© 1997 ichigai-zenart.com
達磨図 Daruma page1 > page2
寒山拾得図 Kanzan & Jittoku page1 > page2
布袋図 Hotei
