Natural Poetry

     The project “Natural Poetry” was organized as an art collaboration with contemporary poet Gary Boswell and young cellist Yoshika Masuda in 2005 at Rydal Mount, the historic home of Poet Laureate William Wordsworth, where he resided for 37 years. Through this project, I sought to explore potential communication with the great poet of the past, who cherished the Lake District—a place I had recently begun to call home with my family. Although it marked a humble beginning to my artistic journey in the UK, this project was undeniably a milestone after more than two decades of silence since my solo show in Aoyama, Tokyo, in 1989. I am deeply grateful to the curators, Peter and Marian Elkinton, for their support. It was a privilege to organize this collaboration at the historic Rydal Mount estate.

 

     As is well known, Wordsworth was a poet deeply enamoured with the Lake District, striving to resist the tide of modernization. I assembled a series of works attempting to trace Wordsworth’s fragmented visual memories and deep emotions from his daily life, inspired by the beauty of the Lakeland, and interpreted them in my own visual language. Particularly, I explored the poet’s spirituality and creativity during the Romantic period, at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution—a time that heralded significant transformations in political, economic, military, ideological, social, and spiritual frameworks. This period also brought challenges such as post-colonialism, environmental threats, and energy issues. Through my work, I aimed to find common ground with the great poet, collaborating in diverse art forms and transcending time and borders.

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Furthermore, I endeavoured to create each piece as if writing poems, contemplating the potential creative synergy between literature and visual art. This series was the first I produced using my original brush hatching method with Japanese sumi ink and acrylic. Furthermore, this project marked my initial attempt at artistic intervention in historical estates, moving beyond the confines of traditional white cube galleries.