2023

Wood (Pecky Bolivian Walnut, Brazilian Cherry, Brazilian Ipe)

21 x 30 x 68 inches

This torso depicts a Komusō figure (“the monks of emptiness”), who were Zen-Buddhist Japanese monks that existed during Japan's Edo Period (1605 - 1867). The Komusō wore special woven basket-like headgear, (tengai), that obscured their faces completely and hid their identities, to manifest the absence of ego. The Komusō appeared when the government forced warlords to radically cut back the size of their personal armies, putting large numbers of samurai out of work. These unemployed samurai (ronin) decided to become Komusō, to start a new anonymous life and retreat from the outside world and their past identities in the temples. One even had to prove one's samurai/ronin status before becoming Komusō.

This sculpture represents that despite these monks were once distinguished and honorable samurai warriors, they were pressured to feel ashamed of who they once were and conform with the new ways of society where there was no place for such brutality anymore. They had to give up their identity and ego completely to become faceless, anonymous Zen monks destined to vagabond aimlessly and survive out of the mercifulness of others.

A visual choice that adds to the concept of depicting a figure who is a shameful warrior is the Bolivian Pecky wood for the torso because the dark marks from termite damage together with the carving marks resemble scars. Marks someone who was a warrior would have in their body. Additionally, the large stand on which the torso is on top has the Kikkō-Hanabishi pattern, symbols frequently depicted on samurai crests. Conceptually, it makes sense because the box carved with a samurai pattern can be seen as the figure’s burden, serving almost as a tombstone from a past life, that the figure hunches/bows over, due to the overwhelming weight of shame it has to carry for being a samurai. Something else that adds meaning to the piece is how it is entirely made out of South American wood, but the theme it addresses is Japanese, so it draws a parallel between my Japanese racial heritage and my Brazilian cultural heritage.