4 Century

In June, I visited the Enoura Observatory, where I encountered a 400-year-old tree that had once stood at Kasuga Taisha Shrine before it was brought down by lightning.

Its mere existence embodied the passage of time. Compared to the centuries held within the tree, a human life feels astonishingly brief. Standing before it, I was overwhelmed by the quiet force of nature and the profound flow of time it carried.

I wanted to translate that experience into paint. Oil painting, with its slow-drying layers and gradual evolution, became the perfect medium through which to express the gentle passage of time.