Takafumi Asakura Th

Takafumi Asakura 'The Flow of Purity During the Long Spring' (2019) Black ink on Japanese paper Courtesy of @yufuku gallery Asakura takes great care in choosing his essential materials of ink, brush and canvas before painting his elegant works. Yet he is far from a traditionalist, in that his subject matter can range from legendary beasts and Shinto gods to abstract movements within himself. The 21st century calls for a contemporary renaissance in painting, one that takes Nihonga to a new playing field of possibilities, and Asakura provides the pivotal key to this brave new world in Japanese painting. For his latest four-panel screen on Japanese paper, Asakura depicts a majestic river that bursts into life. Winter has ended, and the mountain snows melt into Spring, flowing down the mountain, gathering force and filled with the vital energies of life itself. It is a mythical place in the artist’s imagination, a mountain filled with the purity of flowing, falling water, each linear stroke of the artist’s brush executed to perfection in waves and motion. The black boulders are overwhelmed by the flow of the new and the pure, and reminds us that one can never step into the same river twice, for time passes and we change with time. The boulders are the constant, while the rivers of time pass us by. Epic and visceral, Asakura’s paintings capture the above and beyond. #TakafumiAsakura #InkPainting #masterpiecefair