• Ishikawa Kyuyoh Exhibition

     

     

    On View at Shibunkaku
    Apr 18, 2025 − Jun 14, 2025
    Part I　 April 18 − May 15, 2025
    Part II 　May 17 − June 14, 2025
    10:00−18:00
    *Closed on Sundays, Public Holidays, April 28 and May 16 (for exhibition change).
     
     

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  • An Analysis of Calligraphic Aesthetics

    1960s−1980s

    Going at gray paper with brushwork in the manner of pencil strokes, this calligrapher unleashes massive matrixes. Negating and rejecting the affectations of stereotypical calligraphy, he tramples any and all things taboo in a solitary struggle.

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  • The Discovery and Deployment of Taction

    1990s−2000s

    A slackening of the pace is, for an artist, synonymous with decay. Order and chaos, creation and destruction, affirmation and negation...... Through that unceasing interplay does the calligraphy blaze new frontiers.

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  • Calligraphy as Literature

    2010s−

    Underlying all calligraphic works is the questioning as to how calligraphy is to deliver expression in the present. Calligraphy, to whatever extent it is an expression of language, is literature.

  • Biography

    Ishikawa Kyuyoh
    Calligrapher
     
    Born in Fukui Prefecture, Japan in 1945. Graduated from the Faculty of Law at Kyoto University. After serving as a professor at Kyoto Seika University and the director of the Institute for Writing and Civilizations, he is now an emeritus professor at the same university. Ishikawa has elucidated the concept that “calligraphy is the art of hisshoku (taction),” and interprets the structure and history of calligraphy. As a critic, he is also active in discussions on the Japanese language and culture, which have had a significant impact across various fields. In both his artistic creations and written works, Ishikawa continues to produce cutting-edge expressions and insights. His body of work includes over 2,000 calligraphic pieces and more than 100 published books. 

     

    Biography (PDF)

  • “ Comte de Lautréamont (1846-1870) writes famously in The Songs of Maldoror of a connection 'as beautiful as the chance...

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    Comte de Lautréamont (1846-1870) writes famously in The Songs of Maldoror of a connection 'as beautiful as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table.' I have cited that simile in reference to the contemporary mutuality of words and calligraphy.
     
    Rendering text in script occasioned a diversity of writing, of which one strain developed as calligraphy. A pastoral harmony resonated between calligraphy and textual content, which postwar avant-garde calligraphy dissolved in the name of liberating both elements. Contemporary calligraphy, divorced as taction from the prose and verse of text, assumes an autonomy of kinetics, coloration, and form. It no longer fits naturally into the same circuitry as vocabulary and grammar.
     
    I recognize the autonomy of modern taction, but I sense a need for restoring a viable circuitry for connecting text and calligraphy and strive through my work to reestablish that connection. 

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    Excerpted from Kindai shoshi (A history of modern calligraphy) (Nagoya: University of Nagoya Press, 2009)

  • Interview

  • Publication