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| GOKURAKUJI TEMPLE : Shingonsyu Buzanha Gankouzan
Rengein Midoriku Yokohama City (JAPAN), photo NAOKI TAKEDA |
 Mitsuaki Tanabe has
chosen the momi, or rice seed, as the main theme of his sculpture.
Rice is the staff of life for most of the people of Asia, and Tanabe has
traveled widely in Japan and other parts of Asia to investigate the history
and preset conditions of rice cultivation. He has observed the early evidence
of rice farming in Neolithic sites and the terraced rice paddies tended
by ethnic minorities in remote mountainous terrain. During his travels,
he discovered that a species of wild rice, the ancestor of today's rice,
atill grows in tropical wetlands in Asia in spite of the extensive environmental
changes that have taken place over the last ten thousand years. He also
found that the habitat of this wild rice is rapidly being destroyed by
today's excessive economic development. Since then Tanabe has worked together
with scientists to promote the in-situ conservation of wild rice habitat
and has begun to plead his case to the world through art. Believing that
there are no borders to the natural environment, he has made interior
sculpture for the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Manila
and donated large-scale monuments to the agricultural ministries of Thailand
and India. All of these sculptures represent rice grains and sprouts.Gokurakuji Temple has
acquired a bronze MOMI, which represents a sprouting rice seed, as well
as live wood sculptures and one drawing of animals encountered by Tanabe
in his travels to areas where wild rice grows. This is a valuable collection
that provides a good overall picture of Tanabe's main artistic concerns.
The wood sculptures include images of an elephant, a snake, a lizard,
a centipede, and a leech carved into sections of camphor-wood logs. The
animals are skillfully carved into the blocks of wood in simple, compact
forms that give the viewer an interesting and pleasurable vision of their
natural condition. These sculptures are placed in the outer chamber of
the main hall of the temple so that they face the kneeling worshippers
who visit the temple, creating a more intimate viewing experience than
would be possibe in an art museum.In order to carry out
in-situ conservation of wild rice, it is necessary to leave the ervironment
in its natural state and not disturb or damage the diverse flora and fauna
that exist there. In the past, rice paddies provided a habitat for a variety
of living things, but recently it has become customary to overprotect
the rice plants and eliminate other forms of life as pests. Tanabe has
chosen to pay attention to these despised and excluded creatures, and
it is fortunate that his images of animals are preserved in a place guarded
by the Buddha, a place of prayer and worship. This collection of sculptures
effectively expresses the Buddhist teaching of compassion for all living
creatures, and the display of these images in Gokurakuji temple is likely
to result in a deeper form of communication between the hearts of the
artist and the people who view them. |
| Translated by Stanley N. Anderson |
 MOMI |
 leech |
|
 elephant |
 lezard |
|
 centipede |
 snake |
|
 drawing : centipede |
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