In Commemoration of PRC’s 60th Birthday

I have been engaged in Japan-China cultural exchanges through the platform of calligraphy and seal cutting art for over 30 years. During the past over 30 years I was fortunate to take part in many important cultural exchanges between Japan and China, commemorations and celebrations, which have become most precious memories in my life. In the past more than 30 years, I have witnessed tremendous achievements China made in reform and opening up: not only has the appearance of cities been greatly changed through construction and ordinary people’s lives including food, clothing, shelter and transportation have been remarkably improved, but also people’s cultural life has become richer and more colourful. Every time I visit China, I can see China’s on-going development and progress. It was a great pity that I did not get the chance to attend the Olympic Games in Beijing last year, but when I watched its grand opening ceremony on TV, tears welled up in my eyes and I was deeply moved by the development and tremendous changes in China over these years. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. On this occasion I would like to extend my sincerest wishes to China that has made brilliant achievements.

International cultural exchanges mainly take the form of introducing to each other theatrical art and repertoires and giving performances in each other’s country. Exchanges in fine arts more or less take the similar form; namely, to hold exhibitions of art works in each other’s country. To add glory to their career and resume, some artists specially hold individual exhibitions in famous art galleries in other countries. Through cultural exchanges including the above type of exchanges, art crosses national boundaries and even without the help of language brings joy and inspiration to the people. True, there are various kinds of art and great numbers of artists. It is an indisputable fact that some positive results will naturally be gained when many exchanges in all forms of art are carried out between countries. Such exchanges were thriving in the 20th century. But now we have come into the 21st century for almost 10 years. Shall we still keep the established form of exchanges without any changes?

Since the normalization of diplomatic ties between Japan and China, the number of friendship cities between the two countries has been increasing year by year, and now there are over 350 pairs of Japan-China friendship cities. These friendship-city ties were formed after the two sides had made careful study of each other’s natural conditions, social customs, history, industries, size, etc. In the beginning, the Japanese side used to make effort to achieve some results in such superficial things as erecting a monument in its friendship city in China. But now China is getting superiority in world economy. I think cultural exchanges should adapt to the situation, and it’s time for us to change the way of exchanges.

Here I want to say something about the exchanges with China I have carried out in the past 15 years. The exchanges I have been carrying out are mainly focused on Chinese ideogram. Everything on the earth is changing all the time. The rate of change and progress of civilization are speeding up simultaneously. The things that have just appeared before your eyes will be changed almost in the twinkling of an eye; therefore the things which change at a slow rate or low degree seem to be more precious in a rapidly changing world. Chinese ideogram is one of them. It is because of this conviction that I have kept up my study of Chinese ideogram and its related fields and carried on exchanges in this field for many years.

The original form of Chinese characters is oracle bone inscriptions in the Shang Dynasty and then followed by inscriptions on ancient bronze objects. In cooperation with the CPAFFC, I invited experts on the above fields to give lectures in Japan, and collected calligraphy and seal cutting works centring on ancient Chinese writing from both Japan and China, and held exhibitions of these works first in Japan and then in China the next year―the exhibitions were held in Beijing and the birthplaces of Chinese writing. During the exhibition period I specially organized delegations to visit various places in China to explore the origin of Chinese writing.

In China, several kinds of writing have been greatly influenced by Chinese characters. Though they were modifications of Chinese characters, they essentially still resemble Chinese characters, such as the Khitan characters in the 10th century, the Western Xia characters in the 11th century, the Nuzhen characters in the 12th century, etc. In cooperation with the CPAFFC, I once planned exhibitions of these writings, hoping to give these lost ancient writings new life through exhibitions and help them restore vitality as arts of the 21st century. Based on this idea, I, in collaboration with the CPAFFC, held exhibitions of calligraphy and seal cutting works respectively in Japan and the birthplaces of these writings in China.

Of course, in China there are still some ethnic minorities’ written languages that have not been influenced by Chinese characters, the best example being Phagspa script in the Yuan Dynasty. The CPAFFC and I once held an exhibition of calligraphy and seal cutting works of Phagspa script in its birthplace Huhhot. I also brought the exhibition to Japan and invited experts on Phagspa script to Japan to give lectures.

The exhibition that has left the deepest impression on me is the “Exhibition of China’s Western Xia Ideogram” cosponsored by the CPAFFC and me and held in the Ishikawa Prefectural Art Museum, Japan in July 2000. In November of the same year we were invited to mount this exhibition at the Second Shanghai International Art Festival. In 2001 we held this exhibition in the Ningxia Museum and the Western Xia Museum in Yinchuan. It was a great event unprecedented in scale in Yinchuan at that time, like a grand festival. Quite a few Japanese mainstream media gave coverage to that grand occasion. It was utterly beyond our expectation and unforgettable to me.

Looking into the future international cultural exchanges, I think that the 20th century has already prepared fertile soil for them, and the important work we are now facing is to put forward a clear proposition and let it grow into a big tree rooted in this soil. This needs us to explore the similarities between nations on the basis of full understanding of their differences, and take the proposition found in the similarities as the new goal for future development and work earnestly towards this goal. Only by doing so could a new culture be born in the course of exchanges.

If one wants to know the similarities between his own country and others’, he must first get a thorough understanding of his own country. Only by knowing fully about his own country, can he have “roots”; and only by taking root firmly, can the big tree grow luxuriant; thus he can better understand the big tree of another country and help it grow luxuriant.

The reason why I have persisted in exchanges for such a long time is that I have never wavered in my recognition of the Chinese ideogram as a big tree, and I firmly believe that I will continue my exchanges in this field in the future, for in the course of exchanges I find more and more clearly that Chinese ideogram has rich contents awaiting our study and exploration.

(Translated from the Chinesetext)

The author is president of Hokushi Seal Cutting Society