Kazu Saito

Every day, I create Japanese paintings in Kyoto, where one can sense the country’s rich history and seasonal beauty. From my base in Kyoto, I hope to spread and to deepen the knowledge of Japanese paintings for people all over the world.

I believe “open space” is crucial in Japanese painting. Instead of drawing everything in a painting, I leave some space open. To invite the viewer to sense or to feel something in that open space—that’s the most difficult yet fascinating part.

When I gaze at my subject for a painting, I am trying to capture something invisible that hovers beyond the subject itself. Things that have disappeared through the passage of time, the pulse and the movements of life itself, the evanescent things that cannot be voiced—still and silent, I wait for them to appear gradually and come closer to me.

When people look at my artwork, they often tell me that their impression of it changes between the first moment they saw it and afterwards, when they’ve taken more time to observe it. I wonder whether those invisible things are passed on from one person to another through the “space” in my artwork. That’s my hope.

I put together a book of my artworks, Ekotoba (Language of Painting), during the Covid-19 pandemic and donated it to more than 250 schools in Kyoto. I would be happy if students picked it up by chance at the school library and felt soothed by the Japanese paintings. Later, I began to sell the book and receive orders for it from overseas as well. I feel that I have taken a step forward in sharing my art across the oceans and spreading the joy of Japanese painting.