SAKUHO

・Artist Statement
伊藤咲穂は1989年島根県に生まれ、2014年武蔵野美術大学卒業後、アート活動を開始。独自の漉き方で作る和紙や、金属、土、顔料などを用い、幼少期に体験した彼女にとっての真理の世界観である、凪の心から生まれる静けさや移ろい、民族の営みから見える根源的な精神性を探りながら、抽象表現主義の系譜と捉え表現を続ける。

近年、自然や生命を尊ぶ神道の思想へと繋がり、“土に寄り添い、土地と人々を結ぶ”活動として、その地に滞在し採取した土や砂を作品に取り込み、土地の生命を礼拝する作品を制作し神社などに奉納する芸術活動を行う。2023年の出雲大社 奉納作品「命の礼拝」の制作を機に、『礼拝』を生涯の表現として問いかけ続けている。

Sakoho Ito was born in Shimane Prefecture in 1989, and began her art activities after graduating from Musashino Art University in 2014. Using her unique method of making Japanese paper, as well as metals, clay, pigments, and more, she continues to explore and express the tranquility and transience born from the calmness of the heart, which she experienced in her childhood, and the fundamental spirituality visible in the activities of ethnic groups. She perceives and continues her expression within the lineage of abstract expressionism.

In recent years, she has connected with the Shinto philosophy that reveres nature and life, engaging in activities that “Nestling close to the soil, and braiding the spirit of the land with the souls of its dwellers.” She stays in various locations, incorporating soil and sand collected from those places into her works, creating pieces that worship the life of the land, which she then dedicates to shrines and other venues. With the production of the dedication piece “Worship of Life” at Izumo Taisha Shrine in 2023, she continues to inquire about “worship” as her lifelong expression.

・Prologue
わたしの幼少期は、自身の存在の淋しさに支えられていたように思います。なぜなら、その淋しさの中で見た自然との時間は、森や林で眠ったり、夜中に先も見えない真っ暗なアスファルトの路面で星を眺めているうちに自然の仕組みや、その巨大さや、物質同士の穏やかな繋がりを、静けさのなかで子どもながらに「これは世界の本当のことだ」と理解したからです。
それは、半分子どもの夢物語のような稚拙な理解だったのかもしれません。しかし、その当時の感覚が過去から、そして現在、未来までのわたしをどんなに救っているかわかりません。

四季のあるこの国で、樹林が紅葉し枯れ、幾重にも表土に積み重なっていく。「何故、わたしが生まれて何年も経つのに、落ち葉が積み重なる地面はちっとも高くならないのだろうか。」その問に対する行動はとても単純で、わたしはそれから時間を見つけては森や林へ行き、地面へ寝そべりじっと表土を観察して遊んでいました。
蟻が、昨日か一昨日死んでしまったアゲハ蝶を少しずつ噛み切って運んでいる。一ミリにも満たない小さな虫が、葉っぱと土の間を蠢き回っている。秋の終わり、森や林の地面はとても甘い豊かな香りが立ちこめる。

そして、葉が微生物や虫たちによってバラバラに分解され、ついには土へと還っていくことを知ったとき、わたしにとってこれこそが世界の本当なのだ、と深い安心感と共にあったことを記憶しています。
それはとても穏やかで、静けさに満ちた瞬間でもありました。
しかし、当時のわたしにはその興奮を言葉で表現することはできませんでした。ですが、そのような自然に対する問いかけと発見が、今日のわたしの表現に繋がっていることは、わたしの精神をいつも好奇心と優しさで満たしてくれるのです。

[ 素材との出逢いから表現まで ]

大学2年生の冬、富山県五箇山にある和紙工房で楮の繊維に触れたことが契機となり、和紙や宮大工、自国の風土に深く興味を持つようになりました。五箇山の静謐な雪景色のなかで、身も凍るような水に晒された楮(コウゾ)の繊維は、ただもう美しく、和紙に対しての尊敬と懐かしい親しみを感じたのを覚えています。そして、日本の古典にこそ自分の追い求める何かがあると感じ、その精神的な部分は今の制作に大きく影響しています。近年、テーマとなるのは民族性の知覚を試みようとする「転送」と「認知」を軸とするものです。
また、古典を軸に生まれた独自の素材「錆和紙(Sabiwashi)」は作品の主材として多く使われるものの一つです。錆和紙を漉くために必要となる砂鉄は、地元島根県の河川や海で自ら採取し、原料となる楮は、石見地方で育てられたものを使用しています。幼少の頃、⾃然豊かな⾥⼭で樹⽊の葉が枯れ、分解され、⼟へと還ってゆく現象を⾒て興奮した原体験からくる自然真理の探求、若齢期にかけての人間と社会、自身と社会をテーマに表現されるもの、それら二つの統合と拡張を試み、表現することによってDNAに組み込まれた答えを探り、アートの立場から人の営みを問い、そのあり方を探ります。

As a child, living close to a woodland, I was fascinated by the process of leaves withering, decomposing, and returning to the soil.
Through these experience, I chose the history and culture of Washi (Japanese traditional handmade paper) as a basis of my expression and have continued to express under the theme of memories in our time, changes in society, and human roots.

I encountered Japanese handmade paper while I was attending at Musashino Art University in Tokyo. I analyzed it carefully and developed the unique method of adding metal minerals to the traditional Japanese handmade paper making process to create “Sabi Washi” (rust paper).
I create this unique Sabi Washi from the raw materials that are carefully selected and combined by myself, and the paper I make is the only one in the world.
These materials I use express Japanese belief on life and death, praise for aging, Japanese unique view of nature that they accept aging and imperfection as beauty, and also the appreciation toward rustic simplicity, impermanence, and imperfection which is also familiar to Japanese tea ceremony. While the sustainability is placed as the most important thing in many cases nowadays, I am asking the question why we are continuously making the products that are not biodegradable and harmful to the earth such as plastic goods.
Using Sabi Washi (rust paper) and Japanese handmade paper that are made from kozo (mulberry), mitsumata (paper bush), and ganpi (Wikstroemia sikokiana), I create artworks, interior materials, and products. I make Sabi Washi (rust paper) using kozo (mulberry) from Shimane, Tokyo, and Toyama and iron sand from Shimane.

The main motif of my creation is to have the “tranquility” that I experienced in my childhood. The reason why I am attracted to the rusting and aging things is related to the events I played in the mountains when I was a child. My hometown, which is a rural area, is located in the deep mountains of Shimane prefecture. Since there were few friends around, I usually played alone in the woods or was watching the river. There are four seasons in Japan, so in autumn the leaves turn red, wither, and fall to the ground.  I was very excited about the phenomenon that the leaves were gradually broken down into the soil. The sense of this exhilaration became my motivation. I figured out that these events are real and the truth to the world.
  Of course, I was too young to express the feeling of this excitement in words at that time. But still, that feeling has remained and has led to my present artwork.
  Later, when I learned “Houjoki”, one of Japanese classics, and “Kusouzu”, drawn in the Edo period, my thoughts became even more certain.

Besides, Japanese paper has been handcrafted in Japan by the craftsmen in small towns and villages for about 1300 years. On the other hand, people start to sell so-called “washi” like paper which is made by mixed materials of non-Japanese kozo, grown in foreign countries in cheap price, with pulp and synthetic fiber. I have felt resentment against this matter, so I want to find the revalue of real washi through the expression of contemporary art.
  Furthermore, in recent years the viewpoint of sustainability is inevitable in many situations all over the world. And how we interact and coexist with humans and non-humans are major issues. Even though we, human beings, have continued to produce plastics which are non-degradable materials, things that actually “rust”, “ decay”,  “get old” and, “return to the soil” should not be denied but be considered rather beautiful.  These aging processes show the “tranquility” and represent the “principle of equality of living things”. I want to know why all the organisms are designed to age in their DNA, and also I am seeking the answer for the existence of human beings.