Bird and Flowers by Takahisa Aigai, 19th century, Honolulu Museum of Art

📝ONGO's Reflection

This is a flower-and-bird painting that the Japanese artist Takahisa Aigai rendered in ink and color on paper. He held the single moment of a bird nestled in flowers with a plain hand. Though it came from the tradition of Japanese painting, its heart reaches anywhere. I see, in this painting, an eye that holds the moment precious. The bird soon flies away and the flower soon falls. That brief meeting was carefully grasped and left on paper. The way to love what does not stay is not to seize and cage it, but to gaze well and carve it into the heart. A moment seen well does not vanish.