View of “Gozo Yoshimasu,” 2022. Photo: Kei Okano.
. . .the “inadequacy” Yoshimasu refers to in his poetics is not only that of poetry, but of the failure of language at large to convey physical sensations, of visual art to convey verbal thoughts, and of Japanese to convey meaning outside Japan. He does not attempt to resolve these inadequacies. Instead, they are suspended in perpetual tension in artifacts that are not quite texts and not quite pictures. This refusal of resolution animates the surfaces of these works, making them kinetic while they simultaneously and somewhat uncomfortably occupy spaces in both literature and art. – Yuki Higashino
Source: Gozo Yoshimasu
TOKYO — It’s not often that a major art museum hosts an exhibition for a poet.
Source: Poetry at the Root: Yoshimasu Gozo’s Art, Writing, and Music
Yoshimasu Gozo, ’room KINKAZAN’, 2019, installation view at Reborn-Art Festival. Courtesy: Take Ninagawa; photograph: Takehiro Goto
The poet and artist creates works that occupy a transitional state between life and death
Source: Yoshimasu Gozo Navigates the Liminal Zone of Poetry | Frieze
I shout the first line of my poem
I write the first line
A carving knife stands up madly in the morning
These are my rights!
The glow of morning or a woman’s breasts are not always beautiful
Beauty is not always first
All music is a lie!
Ah! First of all, let’s close all the petals and fall down to the earth!
This morning, September 24, 1966
I wrote a letter to my dearest friend
About original sin
About the perfect crime and the method of destroying intelligence
Ah!
What a drop of water rolling on my pale pink palm!
The woman’s breasts are reflected in a coffee saucer!
Oh! I can’t fall down!
Though I ran rapidly over the edge of the sword, the world has not disappeared!
Yoshimasu Gozo
Yoshimasu Gozo
crab apple
b l o s s – o m s . . .
umeboshi plum
– Donna Fleischer
April 26, 2024
crab apple tree
ancient blossoms within
Spring’s avalanche
– Donna Fleischer
May 10, 2013