Hitoshi Nakazato Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1936 - d. 2010

“Since 1962 when I left Japan looking for encounters with the avant-garde, I kept my focus consciously forward. …”

“… in the process [of preparing for the Machida Museum solo exhibition in 2010], I discovered something unexpected and surprising. As I wondered about my deep involvement in [long] formats [4 -100 meters], a memory flashed in my mind. It was a memory from as far back as I could recall from the beginning of the Showa Period (late 1930s) in the backyard of Narutoya: an indigo dying shop … rows of indigo dyed fabric horizontally pulled between poles and stretched by shinshi. I remember looking for my mother while running underneath these rows with hundreds of shinshi, which hung down creating reverse arches beneath the fabric. “

… It was the first time I found myself traveling back to the beginning of the Showa Period and traditional Japan. In this encounter I experienced, the collision of the avant-garde mindset and the original mindscape from deep within my soul, which was unknown territory, the line outside. “

Hitoshi Nakazato
January 15, 2010