"You are the one who chooses everything you need. There is no time to stand still. Your life depends on it."
As I layered the colors, I somehow felt "the energy of a dragon" the whole time. I had not meant to paint a dragon itself, yet the moment it was finished, there was a definite sense of one dancing there. I learned later that across Japan a nine-headed dragon god, Kuzuryu, is enshrined, and is told of as a being who brings people good connections and blessings. It was a mysterious coincidence, as if the work itself had led me to that name.
The Feeling in This Work
For those about to open a new door in life. I painted this work to protect you, bring you the connections you need, and awaken your inner courage.
I want you to remember the power to go beyond the frame of "how things normally should be" and choose your own ideals and truth. I put that wish onto the canvas together with the breathing of an unseen dragon.
Concept & Background
I think life is not about "how it should be"; it is something you can choose again for yourself, as "how I want to live." This work was born from the hope that it would become a chance to remember that power of freedom and creation, and to paint your own life with your own hands.
Technique, Color & Expression
Layering acrylics many times, I expressed a depth and transparency that waver with the light. Red symbolizes the force of life like blood, while gold, blue and green symbolize water, wind and the unseen flow of the mysterious. Without painting the dragon directly, I intended that you could sense its dance and breathing within the layers of color.
On Making This Work
I made this work with a prayer to protect those who view it and bind good connections for them. May this art awaken the dragon-like energy sleeping within you and bring together every good connection for you.
The same work cannot be delivered again, but with Personal Order Art, I paint a one-of-a-kind work just for you through a conversation with each person.About using the artwork
More about this painting
The nine-headed dragon
Kuzuryu is a dragon with nine heads. Shrines dedicated to Kuzuryu and legends about it are found throughout Japan.
The best known is Kuzuryu Shrine on the shore of Lake Ashi in Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture. According to legend, in the Nara period the monk Mangan calmed a venomous dragon that lived in the lake and tormented the people, and it was later enshrined as the lake's guardian deity, Kuzuryu Okami. Today many people visit to pray for good connections and the fulfillment of their heartfelt wishes.
Togakushi Shrine in Nagano Prefecture also has a Kuzuryu shrine, long worshipped as a god of water and of rain. A great river flowing through Fukui Prefecture is named the Kuzuryu River.
The dragon connects water and heaven
In East Asia, the dragon has been revered as a water god that summons clouds and brings rain, and as a symbol of the power to rise to the heavens.
Many temple ceilings in Japan are painted with dragons. Because the dragon is a water god, it is said to protect the hall from fire. On the ceiling of the Dharma Hall at Kennin-ji in Kyoto is the great "Twin Dragons," two dragons entwined, painted in 2002 by the Nihonga painter Koizumi Junsaku to mark the temple's 800th anniversary — and many people still look up at it today.
Red life, and the light the dragon wears
In "The castle of the dragon with nine heads," I layered acrylic many times to create depth and transparency that sway with the light.
Red is the force of life, like blood. Gold, blue and green are the water, light and air of the heavens the dragon wears. The castle guarded by the nine-headed dragon is a fortress within your heart, from which you protect what matters to you and move powerfully forward.
The castle in your heart that protects you
Just as the legend of Kuzuryu turned a raging power into a guardian deity, the great power within us can, when turned in a new direction, become a force that protects us and the people we love.
I hope that whenever you see this painting, you feel the strong and warm protective power within you.
Sources
Hakone Shrine (Kuzuryu Shrine) — in Japanese
Togakushi Shrine (Kuzuryu-sha) — in Japanese
Kennin-ji Temple (Twin Dragons ceiling painting, Dharma Hall)
¥545,000
tax, frame & domestic shipping included
shipping outside Japan: flat ¥8,000
approx. USD $3,630
A one-of-a-kind original painting.
