Writings
Texts on Sou Akou's work by art critics, journalists and figures from cultural exchange.
- Where are Sou Akou's cherry blossoms?Toshio Shimizu, art critic · May 2023
Drawing on Saigyō and Zeami's Fūshikaden, the critic asks why Sou Akou's cherry blossoms never fall, and finds the answer in a pictorial reality born in the painter's mind.
- Sou Akou's cherry blossoms and a hybrid of Chinese and Japanese paintingAkiko Nagata, art journalist · May 2023
The journalist relates the three-dimensional quality that Matazo Kayama saw in Sou Akou's cherry blossoms to Hasegawa Kyūzō's Cherry Blossoms, and introduces the heavy-colour, White Beloved, Impression Nippon and Ikebana series and his teaching.
- The changing painter: the world of Sou AkouKenichiro Nakajima, journalist · November 2022
After watching the artist at work at the Sou Akou Art Center in Ginza, the writer traces his move from cherry blossoms and Mount Fuji to a new style layered with bands of hiragana.
- MessageLei Zhengmin, art critic · May 2015
A comment on the artist's own method, which brings Japanese aesthetics and techniques into traditional Chinese painting.
- MessageYasuhiro Nakasone, former Prime Minister of Japan · March 2014
A message on the artist's work since he came to Japan in 1988 and on his contribution to cultural exchange between Japan and China.
- MessageYukio Hatoyama, former Prime Minister of Japan · February 2014
A message on the artist's style, which unites Chinese and Japanese culture, and on the cultural exchange his exhibitions encourage.
- MessageZhang Rongjun, contemporary art critic · January 2014
A comment on the union of traditional Chinese technique, contemporary methods and the manner of Japanese painting, and on the idea of harmony between nature and humanity.
- MessageYoungJon Lee, UNNEWS · October 2012
A message on the Eastern aesthetics of the work and on the international activities that led to the 2005 award.