258 - SHIOZAKI KEN: HATO SOGEIZU (WHALES GET OVER THE SWELLING WAVE)

SHIOZAKI KEN: HATO SOGEIZU (WHALES GET OVER THE SWELLING WAVE) By Shiozaki Ken (b. 1972), signed Ken with seal Shiozaki Ken Japan, 2021 Exhibited: 1. Tamabi DNA - A Genealogy of Contemporary Nihonga, Japanese Painting, Tama Art University, Tokyo, 3 April - 20 June 2021. 2. Ken Shiozaki: The Look in Your Eyes, Seizan Gallery, Tokyo, 14 - 21 February 2023. 3. Japanese Painting Trio Exhibition, AMMON, Kyoto, 29 September - 22 October 2023. Ink, mineral pigments, gold paint, and gold leaf on Kochimashi paper. Mounted as an imposing six-panel byobu on black-lacquered wood panels. The impressive composition depicts two monumental whales surging through turbulent waves, their massive dark bodies rising amid curling breakers beneath a large golden setting sun. Inscriptions: To the left panel, signed 顕 Ken and sealed 塩崎顕印 Shiozaki Ken. SIZE 159.7 x 360 cm Condition: Excellent condition. Shiozaki Ken (b. 1972) was born in Machida, Tokyo, and studied Japanese painting at Tama Art University, graduating in 1995 and completing his graduate studies there in 1997. His practice draws on Japanese painting from the Heian through Edo periods, reinterpreting its subjects, materials, and visual conventions for a contemporary audience. His engagement with traditional painting has also included commissions for Buddhist temples, among them Rengeji, Ryugenji, and Komyoin. Shiozaki’s inspirations: The present monumental screen, titled Hato Sogeizu [Whales get over the Swelling Wave], ranks among Shiozaki Ken’s most ambitious large-scale works and exemplifies his distinctive reimagining of historical Japanese painting. Its towering wave immediately recalls Katsushika Hokusai’s celebrated Under the Wave off Kanagawa, circa 1830-1832, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York ( fig. 1), while the combination of monumental marine creatures and the folding-screen format finds a striking historical precedent in Ito Jakuchu’s celebrated Elephant and Whale, a pair of six-panel screens preserved in the MIHO Museum ( fig. 2). Shiozaki transforms these historical references into a highly individual composition dominated by the immense dark bodies of the whales, sweeping curves of the waves, and brilliant golden sun. Shiozaki’s Whales: The whale is a recurring subject in Shiozaki’s work, yet the present screen represents the motif on an exceptional scale. In 2016, he painted Togeizu [Whale amid Waves], measuring approximately 45.5 x 38 cm (F8), followed in 2021 by the larger Togei Shokyokuzu [Whale amid Waves and Rising Sun], approximately 72.7 x 60.6 cm (F20), exhibited at Sendai Mitsukoshi ( figs. 3a-b). Executed in the same year, the present work expands the subject across more than 3.5 meters, transforming the intimate compositions of these earlier paintings into an immersive pictorial panorama. The bold silhouettes, flattened pictorial space, and rhythmic contours lend the composition the graphic force of ukiyo-e, while its traditional materials and byobu format firmly root it in Japanese painting. Shiozaki’s Achievements: Shiozaki has also brought the visual language of historical Japanese art into dialogue with contemporary popular culture through a number of high-profile projects. His LA MER, Under the Wave, a reinterpretation of Hokusai’s Great Wave, was exhibited at the Sumida Hokusai Museum in 2024 ( fig. 4). In 2018, his Imayo Ukiyo-e Hansoro: Seikan Taisen Monogatari, inspired by Solo: A Star Wars Story, was presented to the film’s director Ron Howard ( fig. 5). In 2026, Shiozaki created a monumental ukiyo-e-inspired Pokémon composition for Tokyo Flower Carpet 2026 on Gyoko-dori in Marunouchi, Tokyo, marking Pokémon’s 30th anniversary ( fig. 6). These projects demonstrate the breadth of his practice and his ability to translate the techniques and visual vocabulary of Japanese painting into a distinctly contemporary idiom.