Sai (Box of Prayers) by Seihaku AKIBA

A tall, white-primed panel with six renderings of a single form, the square of the character sai, each brushed in a different way. One is fully closed and compact. In another the strokes come loose and stand apart. A third is built around an open corner, with its lower stroke running beyond the frame it should close. In others a stroke detaches entirely and floats free, and one is reduced to a few fragments that only suggest the square. Loosely set in two staggered columns, the six read less as text than as a sequence of variations, the same figure approached six times without ever being repeated. The dense black acrylic ink is laid on so thickly that every stroke stands in low relief, its glossy surface pitted with burst air bubbles and small pools where the ink settled. The title draws on the sinologist Shirakawa Shizuka (1910–2006), who read this element not as "mouth" but as an ancient ritual vessel in which written prayers were offered to the gods. Each square thus becomes a "box of prayers," closed, opened or broken. The reverse carries the artist's own label, titled Sai – Inori no hako (Sai – Box of Prayers), dated 2008 and signed with a red seal, together with the 77 Gallery label recording the title, the medium (acrylic ink on panel) and the date.

AKIBA Seihaku was born in Tokyo in 1954 and majored in Edo cultural history at Seijo University. He began submitting work to public exhibitions while still in high school and won numerous awards, among them the Mainichi Prize, at the Nitten, Mainichi, Toho and Tokyo exhibitions. He went on to serve as a juror and councillor for several of them. In 2004 he withdrew from all calligraphy associations and has since worked independently, centring his practice on the theme of prayer. He carves words of prayer directly into wood and uses acrylic, oil, mineral pigments, metal leaf, pastel and watercolour in a collage-like manner, so that his works can hang without traditional mounting. In 2008 he showed at Art Fair Tokyo, and he held solo exhibitions at 77 Gallery, Ginza, in 2008 and 2010.

Condition: Very good; light handling wear and small white primer splashes to the edges and reverse; front to be confirmed on examination.