AQUA — Mikumari, Deity of the Waters
The mountain deity’s gift of water — the water of life, circling on, never stagnant.
50 × 50 cm · Price on RequestMandala Oracle Card
Calling
KeywordsThe creator; manifestation; giving form to a vision
The Story of the Mandala
A work from August 2024.
My first 50 × 50 cm mandala…
Nachi Falls, Nekomata Falls, Ryuchin Shrine — places I went on the journey in April 2024 after leaving teaching… no photographs remain, but the water had a different face at each. So did the water of Takasumi Shrine on Hikosan, near home, where I often go…
I began wanting to draw “a world of water”, but as I drew I came to feel that perhaps it was the water that wanted to appear.
When I place myself in nature and become one with it, I feel I can remember the purpose of my soul…
From “Today’s Message”A calling is to live as yourself…
Artist’s Notes
This was my first work at 50 × 50 cm, drawn two summers ago. It was inspired by the spring water at Hikosan Shrine and Takasumi Shrine, which I often visited at the time.
At first I wanted to draw the spring itself; but as I drew, I found myself wondering whether it was I who wanted to draw the water, or the water that wanted to appear…
Being selected was never the goal of entering an open exhibition. I simply wanted to ask whether what I had would hold up. I think of a finished work as a distillation of the whole process of my life so far.
Threads, May 2026 — on being selected for the 82nd Genten Exhibition