SATOSHI

Literati paint bamboo; I paint utility poles.

Since ancient times, bamboo has been painted again and again because its forms were felt to share something with the brushwork of calligraphy. For me, the utility pole serves that same role — one more way of training the line of my calligraphy.

Along the wires, the following words are written in a cursive hand, with the brushwork of kana in mind.

"Examine the background of the event itself. The world is filled with words."

A passage from the Vimalakīrti Sutra.
Vimalakīrti was a figure whose eloquence could get the better of even the assembled disciples and bodhisattvas of the Buddha.
One day he fell ill, but everyone felt uneasy about facing him, and no one came forward to visit his sickbed.
In the end it fell to Mañjuśrī, foremost in wisdom, to go.
When Mañjuśrī and his party arrived, Vimalakīrti entered into a dialogue with him.
After exchanging arguments back and forth, Mañjuśrī pressed him to speak the truth.
With everyone looking on, what Vimalakīrti did was close his mouth and say not a single word.
This came to be praised as "Vimalakīrti's single silence, resounding like thunder," and it became the most famous passage in the Vimalakīrti Sutra.
What one who has knowledge still cannot explain — that is truth itself.
For anyone who works in art, these are words to take to heart.