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10-8－23

A rooster with a large comb appearing in Tanaami’s works is a motif linked to his childhood memories of wartime. While evacuated to the countryside in Niigata, he saw hundreds of chickens at a nearby farm. When there were air raid alerts on the radio, the chickens made an uproar, and their combs reminded him of flames. References can be seen to roosters painted by Edo-period (1603–1867) artist Ito Jakuchu, but in Tanaami’s renderings, the roosters symbolize terror and fires from the bombings. Blending past memories with the ever-evolving present has become a prominent hallmark of Tanaami’s recent works. His incorporation of personal memories and dreams, which we all possess, as central themes is a defining feature of his art’s boundless originality.