Sun Rising over a Turbulent Sea

Embroidery        

Original: Hanging scroll, Satin-tinted yellow, 144.3 x 49.3 cm.

Embroidered here are fantastic mountains of immortal realms and the Red-leafed Tree of the Rising Sun. Ocean waters shoot huge turbulent waves upward as an orange-red sun rises from the sea among propitious clouds cast in the five lucky colors.

Color is used in this piece in a gracefully elegant, understated way, and transitions of tones attain an extraordinary degree of finely gradated smoothness. In the technique employed here the needlework follows the rhythmic movement of the water and mountains and the directions in which the trees grow. The technique of embroidery captures the sense of an actual painting very well; and in rendering mountains and rocks the application of color and the embroidery are combined in a naturalistic manner, as though a brush had been used to apply gradedtints of color. Places embroidered with patters of waves have been divided into three zones in order to distinguish degrees of spatial depth.

Reflections coming from the gleaming threads on the surface of the embroidery produce a feeling of water and waves in flowing movement and agitation, thus enhancing a life-like movement that is quite extraordinary.