Sui San Mui

In December 2007 my friend, Josette Simon-Gestin (http://www.josettesimongestin.com/), an artist, asked me to collaborate with her by contributing artwork to her show in a gallery in Philadelphia. I had never made art for anyone but myself. For this show, I lay in bed, and thought "what does man need? and the answer came clearly - a link, a connection, to the infinite. The rope at Shinto shrines you pull to wake up the gods, became the ribbon falling from the sky. This led me to think of a soul reaper's ribbon from the anime Bleach by Tite Kubo, and that is why Byakuya is in the work, drawn pretty much straight from the manga. There are quotations by Byakuya in the lowest panel, and by Ichigo in the middle. On the top panel there are poems by Murasaki Shikibu, author of the Tale of Genji. As the viewer reads from left to right, from lower to higher, he completes his journey with the more feminine perspective, The arrangement of the art to create a cut or opening to the sky in the gallery was an intentional one. The location of the work was known to me beforehand. All of the structural ideas of the work on this website were made manifiest in this first work.

Lowest panel text:

"Sympathy for one's own kin is unworthy. Familial devotion is nothing next to the law. I must not succumb to sentimentality. The Kuchki are one of the four great noble houses. We have to set an example for all soul reapers. If we do not uphold the law...who will? " Byakuya Kuchki from Bleach

Middle panel text:

"Your so-called honor...demands that you kill Rukia. If that's the case...then stepping on your honor is the reason I achieved Bankai." Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach

Top panel text:

I feel of others' affairs as though they were the waterbirds I watch floating idly on the water. My idleness comes only from sorrow. Murasaki Shikibu

This life will not cause you sorrow if you thought of it as like the mountain cherry blossoms which bloom and fade in a day. Murasaki Shikibu

Thanks, Josette!