Hoshi ni Negaiwo (Wish Upon a Star) The Azure Moon

To know the blue
that blossoms
on the moon that invites
destiny
and resides in our bodies

The lotus, a swaying bloom from the past, present, and future… between the world we know and worlds we cannot see
Enveloped in blue, the pure soul of the world is like dew on the swaying sacred flower…

Several hundred, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of times falling to cover the blue world.
A blue born from blending countless colors on Japanese paper with my fingers.
Like the undulations of water and the fluctuations between clouds…
When the blue of the dark of night meets the blue of dawn, the blue that occurs is unchanging from ancient times, even now and in the future. 
It is a representation of my imagined landscape of Japan.

As people 1,000 years ago, people today, and people 1,000 years from now wish upon a star, offering prayers for someone or something other than themselves, they reveal an act of beauty—dignified and human.
That is what I believe.

“Hoshi ni Negaiwo (Wish Upon a Star)” is made with my own fingers according to my own unique technique of “shifuku printing.”
Similar to pointillism, the karakami is dyed in layers alternating with light, hundreds of thousands of times.
There is a saying, “mountains, rivers, plants and trees all have the Buddha nature.”
Look at leaves, watch the branches sway, see the trees, behold the mountains…
All of these things, every single one, are irregular, but because they are linked, they produce the beauty of harmony. 

This world, with its beautiful harmony coming from irregularity.
Nature taught me this and awakened a world of color in me that is “shifuku printing.”
Blue, red, yellow, black, and white; when mixed together, could they produce a translucent blue?
This is pure beauty from the bosom of irregularity.
It was exactly this fusion of diversity that I was after.

The blue lights that I layered one by one is an homage to our forefathers. It is evidence that I was alive and the path to the future. 
The important things are not visible to the human eye.
Not everything is visible. Some things must be felt, not seen.
There are things that you won’t see if you don’t try to look. Once you try to see, you will.

People exist here and now as individual beings.
Once we realize that we are alive in all other beings, even those who seem to have nothing to do with us, the world will be connected in harmony. 

Do you believe in something?
Is there something that you want to believe in?
But is that where your believing heart is?

I believe that karakami has the power to make people happy.
That power now rests upon my shoulders, together with the souls of all those who have loved karakami over the last 400 years.

I fervently hope that karakami will bring joy and tranquility to people’s hearts, and that the world will find peace. 

Karakami Artist Toto Akihiko