Hyohaku / Spiritual Darkness

To comprehend Kajioka Toshiyuki's dark palette, one must learn about his creation process. The artist starts with applying a layer of ink onto a stretched wet hemp paper surface, following with fine pencil etching. He repeatS the process of ink layer application and pencil etching details until satisfaction. The result is a plain monochrome picture from afar, but in close distance the surface reveals its identity with countless nodes of waves and dynamic texture. The presentation reflects a personal experience Kajioka had in high school, when he was captivated by the flowing river at a night. The surface of the river appeared to be calm, even solid under the darkness. Yet he failed to capture any constant shape, as every moment the liquid flowed, transformed, mingled, and finally disappeared into darkness. The perpetual changing of form links to the thinking of existence of any substantial.
Kajioka Toshiyuki works with ink and Japanese paper, but he does not emphasize on the medium. The employment is more of a result from spontaneous choice as he received nihonga (traditional Japanese painting) training. Such result is a harmonious presentation of unconventional usage of traditional materials, which developed from art by modern pioneers like Shinoda Toko and Inoue Yuichi, who surveyed the limitation and possibility of traditional medium.