Nº	No.0024
Title	“Arabesque Rokugo” 唐草六合
Material	Canvas, oil painting
Size	F100号（1,620×1,303mm）
Date of production	October, 2022
Exhibition name	2023 Nichihakukai Exhibition (selected)

Picture description

A long time ago, a woman was traveling in search of the arabesque fruit. After some time, she found an arabesque tree on the rocky shores of the Nagara River, in Japan.

There were six seeds there. The woman decided to take the seeds back and grow them in her village. At that time, the six sprouts that emergerd from the seeds showed six directions. Top, bottom, right, left, forward and back.
These six directions are called Rokugo.
The woman brought back the seeds showing to the front and the back. Those means past and future.

The Japanese artist explain, the seeds we received from her, in the picture, are placed on the paper which is located at the bottom. The folds of the kaishi paper face towards us, so it has the meaning of ``Itadakimasu'', that is, we are receiving them, and therefore we are receiving the past and the future.

There are more interesting things in the picture.

The first one, there is a large whale cloud that emits light. Whales are the largest animals on earth, and it is said they have decided to live on earth forever.
At the same time, there are two women. The woman on the right, wearing red pants, is the leader. She has three dogs at her feet in those pants.
Also, there are four arabesque trees and five animals, hiding in the clouds. A cat, a pig, a turtle, an elephant and a bird. Each animal has a meaning. The pig seems to be moving through the clouds quickly. Six arabesque seeds.

About color scheme

The music you hear is "Imagine" by The Beatles. If you look closely, you can see that the faces of the women looks like John Lennon, on the right, and Yoko Ono, on the left. John uses the colors of the German flag: black, red, and yellow. And Yoko is blue, white, red, the colors of the French flag. In the past, the two countries were often at war. Both women may have been shaped like a heart, in order to wish for world peace.

About composition