Shinoda Toko: The Depths of Sumi
Information
- Number of items exhibited
- 25
- Period
- July 4 (Fri.) –September 17 (Wed.), 2025
- Closed
- 2nd and 4th Saturdays, Sundays, national holidays
- Admission
- ¥500, children through high school age free of charge
About the Exhibition
According to the classic Tao Te Ching, the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu taught that black, or darkness, represented truth or the origin of all things, transcending space and time. Black is expressed using the character gen 玄, which the dictionary explains as that which is dark and undefined, and therefore unfathomable. In her writings, Shinoda Toko wrote “Gen is not the color of a single dark stroke of sumi but the color of stroke-after-stroke of pale sumi layered upon each other until it is just shy of pitch black. Gen, if expressed in color, is the color of sumi and the essence of things.” She would go on to say that “I love the notion that gen is not pitch black.”
After spending two years in the United States from 1956, Shinoda realized that the limitless attraction of sumi could only be explored in Japan’s moist climate, and she moved her home studio back to Japan. After her return, she continued her studies of the depths of black, producing works in which accumulations of pale sumi ink bounce off each other to form successive layers. She tackled the depiction of the passage of time and the expansion of space over a canvas through the use of pale and dense shades of ink and differences in darkness and light, continuously venturing into the mystery of gen, the depths of blackness in sumi ink that cannot be explained in words. Shinoda devoted her life to painting with ink and to the pursuit of her own expression of the abstract. This exhibition seeks to capture Shinoda’s spirit, showcasing the colors of black in all its infinite depths and expressions.