The poem Presented to Chen Shang by Li He, a prodigious poet of the Tang dynasty who died young, contains the line “At twenty, his heart was already rotted.” This is the second line of the poem and is said to reflect Li He’s particular sense of nihilism, despite his being celebrated as a genius in his youth. Ishikawa himself placed this phrase at the beginning of a chapter in his autobiography, reflecting on his four years at university.

Prior to this work in 1992, Ishikawa produced a series of seventeen large pieces that incorporated the entire text of Li He’s poem. He commented that at that time, he told himself, “This will be the end of my works with bleeding ink.” And indeed, four years later, in this piece, he abandoned bleeding ink entirely, instead introducing the technique of kasure (dry brush), where the brush scrapes the paper’s surface to create a rough texture. This technique, embodying a forceful intensity, holds a crucial place in Ishikawa’s stylistic repertoire. In the same year as the seventeen-piece series, he also created a series based on poems by Ryōkan, in which the kasure technique emerged alongside the bleeding ink, eventually supplanting it. Considering these developments, it becomes clearer why Ishikawa chose an approach different from his previous works when he revisited Li He’s poems.

Ishikawa Kyuyoh (calligrapher; b. 1945)

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.