Letting the Ink Flow

Form is emptiness; emptiness is form. This teaching is at the core of the Heart Sutra (Skt.: Prajnaparamitahrdaya; Jp.: hannya shingyo), one of the most important texts in East Asian Buddhism, and it has informed the work of Japanese artist Yoshio Ikezaki (b. 1953) for much of his career. The seemingly paradoxical statement refers to the central Buddhist idea that nothing has a permanent, unchanging form, so the true nature of all phenomena is formlessness or emptiness. Thus, form and emptiness are one unified reality. For a quarter century, Ikezaki has been exploring form and formlessness in paintings and sculptures made with paper and sumi ink and infused with water and his own energy, or ki (Ch.: qi). Looking at his full body of work since the 1990s, it is apparent that his understanding and expression of this key Buddhist teaching have changed and evolved over the decades. 

Ikezaki grew up in Japan and was steeped in Buddhist rituals and the power of sutras. One of his most important family traditions was sitting at the household altar chanting sutras for the repose of his family ancestors. In the 1970s, Ikezaki moved to the United States and began training as an artist, becoming familiar with many Western modernist trends. In 1980, he returned to Japan to study traditional Japanese washi papermaking with renowned papermakers Shigemi and Shigeyuki Matsuo of the century-old Matsuo Japanese Paper Studio in Yame, Fukuoka Prefecture. He became highly skilled at controlling the thickness and distribution of each paper sheet’s kozo (paper mulberry) fibers. He also learned how to mix sumi ink. In the late 1980s and 1990s, his abstract paintings showed the influence of Japanese calligraphy, rendered with bold, solid strokes of black ink on paper. However, in the early 2000s, Ikezaki began to study the Heart Sutra in earnest, and his engagement with the text and its meaning began to influence his painting. Lines faded and disappeared in the fluidity of a new series of ink paintings.

In these abstract monochrome landscapes, ink and paper are the two most tangible elements, but two other elements—water and his own energy—play a critical role. Before applying ink to paper, Ikezaki practices meditation and concentration to unite his mind, body, and spirit so that his intention and intuition can work harmoniously. Then he wets the paper, applies the ink, and begins manipulating the flow of the ink over the paper’s wet surface using his ki. In many East Asian philosophies, ki is the life force or energy that permeates everything in the universe and flows through and around our bodies. “Ki is the essential element for my artwork,” Ikezaki explains. “I use water as an active force to control the ink on wet paper. Ki transforms my will and intention to control the ink movement over the entire and local space of paper, for even distribution of both intended and accidental collisions of ink and water.” 

Once he harnesses and controls his ki, he can create such ethereal visions as Reflection of Stormy Sky 667, which appears as a landscape with misty mountains, cascading waterfalls, and forest-lined lakes. In this work and those of his Timeless Auras series, which he began around 2003, the landscapes are subtle yet haunting, suffused not only with water and ink but also a quality the Japanese refer to as yugen, meaning “mysterious” or “suggestive.” They also echo the teachings of the Heart Sutra. For example, the painting Timeless Wind 135 possesses a fluid ambiguity, reading both as a landscape and an abstract image free of structure or outlines, suggesting a lack of any permanent form. “Ink has its own mind, and liquid never stays the same,” Ikezaki explains. “In my paintings, I tried to make my translation of the Heart Sutra—my own selfish, personal interpretation of the idea that all things are changing and growing, and nothing is permanent.”

In a new exhibition at the Kylin Gallery in Beverly Hills, Ikezaki shows several new works from 2022 to 2024, which emanate a starkly different energy, though created using mostly the same techniques as his earlier abstract landscapes. In Insight (Chokkaku), the fluidity of his earlier monochrome ink landscapes remains, but the serenity of the earlier “lakeside” landscapes is replaced with a dynamic, abstract image suggestive of a tree falling into a river or other sudden, even violent, natural occurrence. The painting Elucidation (Yuuhatsu) is similarly vigorous, evoking the crashing of water in a rushing river, with touches of white acrylic pigment added to suggest frothing foam. 

“I let the ink go its own way.”

“My newer works are more abstract and intuitive,” he explains. The artist recently turned 72 and has been reflecting on his artistic evolution. “When I was younger, I tried to control the ink more,” he continues. “Now, I am older, and I let the ink go its own way. I am also less tense with my ki, and perhaps some of my emotions are freer to come out. I am very concerned about climate change,” he adds, “so maybe you can see this in my paintings.”

These newer works exude more emotion and drama. By relaxing control of his ki, Ikezaki allows what was beneath the surface in his earlier works to burst out and take over the paper. In Indication (Yochou), the black ink streams downward in strong diagonals, echoing dark lava flows on the sides of a volcano or tangled tree branches. His allusions to the natural world are no longer serene landscapes but include dynamic elements that evoke its strength, power, and possible wrath as we continue to abuse it. His imagery is not all dark, however. In the past few years, Ikezaki has begun introducing colored pigments (acrylic and Japanese watercolors) into his formerly monochrome abstractions, and these exuberant accents bring a lightness and hopefulness. In the painting Reminiscence (Omokage), amid bold, jagged strokes of black ink that suggest a scene of a large, ancient tree by the entrance to a cave, blue, purple, and yellow splashes of color appear to dance and illuminate the otherwise dim surroundings—perhaps representing the power of cheerful memories during a dark time, as the work’s title seems to suggest. Or perhaps not.

As the Heart Sutra teaches, nothing truly exists; it is in a temporary state and then changes. Yoshio Ikezaki has spent a quarter of a century investigating this concept in his paintings. Both the changes in his artistic approach that have come with age and the fluid, ambiguous quality of his imagery remind us of the transience of all things. “Yoshio Ikezaki’s art always brings me a deeper insight into how peaceful the world is with great meditation,” says Yvonne Zhu, director of Kylin Gallery. “It becomes my remedy and treatment for our chaotic society.” Indeed, accepting this transience and becoming fluid like ink and water is a wise approach to all aspects of life. 

Yoshio Ikezaki’s work can be found at www.yoshioikezaki.net. Several of his works will be featured in the exhibition “Transformative Energies: Two-Dimensional Works by Yoshio Ikezaki, Miya Ando, and Joseph Akerman,” from March 22 through May 18, 2025, at Kylin Gallery in Beverly Hills, California.