Ritsuun Omote

Detail, Mukuge, -Rose of Sharon

Mukuge, -Rose of Sharon

2010

4' 5.94" x 2' 3.56" (scroll)

Sumi ink on paper

“The function of written characters is to represent the pronunciation of language with simplified symbols that can be used commonly. Thus nowadays, the character types, which are accepted and used throughout the world, are all phonograms or pronunciation-based characters.

However in the late nineteenth century it was learned that characters written on pieces of bone called ryukotu...actually represented a writing system called Oracle Bone Script dating from the Shang Dynasty around 1500 B.C. They were hieroglyphic pictograms and are the earliest appearance of logographic characters...quite peculiar in the world in that they represent both pronunciation and meaning.

Since then, with the passage of time there have been changes, however, the characteristics and aspects found in the earliest writings have remained present to this day, hidden in the abstract art- like aspects of ‘sho’.

[Following] the Second World War...much self-examination was requested of Japan. In ‘sho’...the new idea of ‘Avant garde sho’ appeared. At the same time, in Europe and North America the structure and brush-stroke technique of ‘sho’ triggered a flourish of abstract painting.

[I] hope that this exhibition will serve as a chance for ‘sho’ to spread beyond China, Korea and Japan and bring about another inspired and exciting exchange between the art of East Asia and that of the West.”

Ritsuun Omote is an Avant-garde Calligraphy artist. He is also the Leader of the Gebdosha Group. Omote was born in 1926 in the Toyama Prefecture. In 2009 the artist won First Prize for Japanese Calligraphy Art. Omote has a deep knowledge of classical Chinese, and uses avant-garde form.