Mizuha: Fujisan (Mt. Fuji)

As a sacred mountain that has long been a source of inspiration for the Japanese, Fuji has no equal. We created the cherry blossom pattern out of our association with Konohanasakuya Hime, the guardian deity of sakura. The pure white peak of the sacred mountain adorned with a rising dragon shines with a unique brilliance. My Mt. Fuji quietly glows, covered in overlapping whirlpools of purifying spiritual energy. A certain poem came to mind when I created the piece.

I know not
what being dwells here,
but my teras pour forth,
overflowing with gratitude.
(Saigyou)

We will awaken the divine in this paperless, profane world.
To pray for world peace by connecting East and West through karakami.
This work was born like a prayer and manifested itself in the world.
It is my life’s mission to find light and shadow in a world of chaos. My karakami is a mixture of coincidence and necessity, unintentional and intentional acts intertwining, spiraling, and overlapping. The process of making it is to pray as if clinging to the flickering shadows created in it.

At the final moment, there is nothing to do but pray.

With its hints of unfinished beauty that show my yearning to touch something that lies beyond the realm of technique and action, the world of karakami is completed in the viewer’s mind with shadows and shimmering.

It isn’t there, and yet it is. 

That is the kind of beautiful karakami I strive to create.

January 2022
Karakami Artist Toto Akihiko