Inlet by Kuroda Seiki (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo)

📝ONGO's Reflection

This painting by Kuroda Seiki holds an inlet where the sea has quietly worked its way into the land. The brush of one born in Japan and trained in Western technique rested upon a calm waterside. I see here a gaze that drew not the raging sea but water held in an embrace. An inlet is the place where fierce waves come inward and subside. Even the great sea, gathered into the land, grows calm. The human heart is the same. Feeling that beat down roughly settles once it reaches someone's embrace or a familiar place. Calm is not weakness but the peace that comes after being received.