01 / THE WORK
About this work
Kaze no Ashi belongs to the run of wide-format ink works Watabe Tamotsu began in 2022, in which a single sheet is worked flat on the studio floor and finished in one continuous session. The brush is loaded once and never reloaded; the pale, splitting strokes near the right edge are the last of the ink leaving the hair.
What reads at first as reeds bent in wind is closer to a record of speed. Watabe works standing, moving the whole arm rather than the wrist, and the scattered ink — tobashi — falls where the brush changed direction rather than where it was placed. The vermilion seal at lower left is the artist's own, carved by his teacher in 1998.
The work was shown at the 44th Nagoya Calligraphy Institute Exhibition in spring 2025 and has remained in the artist's studio since.
02 / DETAILS
Specifications
- TITLE
- Kaze no Ashi 風の足
- ARTIST
- Watabe Tamotsu 渡部 保
- ART NAME
- 汀
- MEDIUM
- Sumi ink and vermilion seal
- MOUNTING
- Kuroki ash frame, museum glass
- PAPER SIZE
- Handmade kozo, unsized (custom)
- ACTUAL SIZE
- 680 × 480 mm
- OUTER SIZE
- 760 × 560 mm
- YEAR
- 2024
- WEIGHT
- 11.4 kg crated
- PROVENANCE
- The artist's studio, Nagoya
04 / THE ARTIST
Watabe Tamotsu 渡部 保
Watabe Tamotsu's work brings together the discipline of Japanese calligraphy with the freedom of abstract expression. Trained in the Nagoya Calligraphy Institute from the age of nine, he has exhibited with the Institute...
05 / RELATED
More from Abstract Ink
All artwork images are protected under Japanese copyright law. Unauthorised reproduction without the artist's permission is prohibited.
作品の画像はすべて著作権法により保護されています。作者の許可が無い無断転用は法律で禁止されています。