Installation view of Daichiro Shinjo “Aka”, ANOMALY (Tokyo), 2025
Photo: Keizo Kioku
Daichiro Shinjo was born on the island of Miyako in Okinawa in 1992, where he is currently based. As an emerging artist working with traditional calligraphy made with ink from sumi (hardened black ink sticks that are rubbed on ink stones with water to produce ink) and brush, he goes beyond this framework in pursuit of calligraphy for the contemporary age. He is expanding the scope of his activities inside and outside Japan.
As grandson of Keisho Okamoto, a folklorist and Zen monk, in his early childhood, he drew characters with sumi ink in an environment where calligraphic works and paintings by the famous monks Sengai and Hakuin were close at hand. After studying architecture at university, and being involved in architectural design, he then left this work out of a sense of alienation from society and his life. He subsequently continued to create works of calligraphy at home, and made his debut as a full-fledged artist with a solo exhibition in 2017.
While based on a simple calligraphic structure of black characters on the supporting medium, the characters were so abstract as to be undecipherable, due to their thick lines and dots. They became organic forms that radiated energy in the picture and appeared to wriggle. These black entities containing a sense of space somehow leave the viewer with a sculptured impression, in spite of the works being two-dimensional. This will be Shinjo’s first solo exhibition at ANOMALY and will display about 25 of his latest works, both canvas and paper, on the theme aka*.
Note:
*Aka: A Zen teaching that enlightenment is not transmitted by words and writing, but can be attained by questioning things.
*About the title of this exhibition
Aka (Red), the title of this exhibition, is a word symbolizing movement and life force that we cannot see but nonetheless exist. Shinjo says that incidents of life and death that have occurred close to him in recent years are symbolic of sudiru―a term for resurrection and rebirth in the Miyako outlook on life and death. From these experiences, for the theme of this exhibition, he chose aka, which may be equated with movement and life force in this outlook. The pieces shown in this exhibition make up his Aka series, for which he sublimated the characters associated with the aka theme into works.
Now on view – Saturday, May 17, 2025
ANOMALY
1-33-10-4F Higashi-shinagawa Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 140-0002 Japan
Open: 12:00 – 18:00
Closed: Sun, Mon, and public holidays
Admission: Free
For more details about the exhibit, visit the ANOMALY website.
