歌人馬場あき子の日常を撮ったドキュメンタリーを観た。「良い短歌とは？」の問いかけに、「現前が感じられるもの」と答えたのが心に残る。沢村澄子の書にその現前を感じた。―現前―それは目の前にある事。起こったことの意だが、その瞬間を受け止め表現する者の経験や思いが込められてこそ、の現前である。沢村が奔らせた墨跡に、彼女の息使い、心の有り様が煌めく。宇宙（あめ）の星に比べれば、地の花も我々の生も儚いものでしかないが、その生の輝きが、儚くとも明日へと導く光が、墨の宇宙から降り注ぐ。（企画者：田代早苗）
I watched a documentary on the daily life of the poet Akiko Baba. When she was asked, “What is a good tanka poem?,” she answered, “It is something that you can feel the Genzen of;” that left me with a deep impression. I felt this Genzen in Sumiko Sawamura’s calligraphy. Genzen is something that is right in front of you or that has just happened; but it only emerges when the one who accepts each occurrence then pours these experiences and thoughts into the work. In Sawamura’s ink that gushed from her, Sawamura’s breath and the state of mind sparkle. Compared to the stars of the universe, the flowers of the earth and our lives are fleeting; but the brightness of our lives, the light that leads us to tomorrow, even if transient, is pouring down from the universe of ink. (Exhibition Planner: Sanae Tashiro)
Sumiko Sawamura
Born in Osaka in 1962. Began presenting her works while a student at Niigata University’s Faculty of Education, Department of Special Calligraphy. Recent major exhibitions include “Sumiko Sawamura: Flower of Time” at Sumida Hokusai Museum MARUGEN1008 (Tokyo) in 2021, “Kenji Miyazawa – Sumiko Sawamura Phenomenal Calligraphy Exhibition” at Kenji Miyazawa Ihatove Hall (Hanamaki, Iwate) in 2010, and “Joy of Calligraphy: Sumiko Sawamura Exhibition” at Ishigami Museum of Art (Hanamaki, Iwate) in 2011. She is active in outdoor exhibitions, workshops, performances, and collaborations with other genres. She received the 2022 Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award in the Fine Arts Division of the Art Encouragement Prize. She defines calligraphy as “Writing”; separates her own works from paintings by “Not drawing.” www.sawamura-sumiko.work
I have written in the past about Yagi Nagisa’s previous prints, which have a mirror-like composition, that look like a still space created by various strained forces pushing against (or pulling) each other. I was surprised to find in her new works a sense of freedom, as if the surface of winter water, where waterfowl rest, had become tepid with the changing of the seasons and began to ripple in the warm breeze. It was like opening the pages of a lively handwritten score or a beautifully rhymed book of poems, the soft movement of the whole, rather than its parts. It is if the birds, grass, and trees in the springtime began to sing in a whisper, a hint of color floated across the black-and-white screen. I would like to quietly experience the signs of spring that will come as the paintings at the gallery in March. (Exhibition Planner: Hiroshi Okura)
Nagisa Yagi
Born in Yokohama in 1961. Solo exhibitions included Shirota Gallery (Ginza/Tokyo) in 1994, Miki Gallery (Ginza/Tokyo) in 1997 and 1999, Galerie Konoha (Kanda/Tokyo) in 2000, NICHE GALLERY (Ginza/Tokyo) in 2008, 2013, 2016, 2018, and 2022, and Niigata Eya in 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2019. Her works were presented in the 2015 Contemporary Japanese Graphic Art Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik (Croatia), in the 2016 Japan-China Contemporary Printmaking Exchange Exhibition-Shenzhen at China Printmaking Museum, in 2019 at the “Adventures of Surface/Mythology of Abstraction” [Atsushi Tanigawa Project] at Gallery Kounotori (Tokyo), in 2022 at the Collection Exhibition “Continuation of Dream, Beginning of Story” Kurobe City Art Museum (Toyama), et al.
