Spring Light
Thoughts of home are always sweet and faintly bitter — the early-spring light of my hometown.
20 × 20 cm · $1,300Mandala Oracle Card
Cycle
KeywordsAbundance, circulation; being fulfilled by giving
The Story of the Mandala
A work from March 2025. My hometown is a small town ringed by mountains. Long ago it had a mountain castle, held by Goto Matabei. Toyotomi Hideyoshi is said to have come here and presented a campaign surcoat to the townspeople in recognition of their part in bringing Akizuki Tanezane to surrender; it is now a local treasure.
I live a little way from the town now, but now and then I visit its shrine, Hokuto-gu. A local brewery named its fine sake “Kanhokuto” after the shrine, and it has become well known.
My hometown is always gentle and warm…
and bittersweet, a little sour…
The wind that blows there was shining in the light of spring…
My hometown is the symbol of my abundance…
From “Today’s Message”We live within the cycle of life…
Artist’s Notes
Now and then I go into the mountains to breathe the air, savour the light through the leaves, soak in birdsong, listen to the mountain water running… and before long the trees begin to speak…
My hometown is a place rich in nature… its water so clear that there are several sake breweries… I once could not wait to leave that small town, with all its tangled relationships… The hometown I disliked has become the place where I find myself again… Whatever the time, whoever I am, its nature welcomes me as it always has… So I go home, looking for spring…
Threads, January 2026 — “Looking for spring…”, on the artist’s hometown