Yabuuchi Satoshi

ARTMIYA is proud to be Satoshi Yabuuchi’s exclusive representive in the USA.

Yabuuchi Satoshi, Japan’s foremost Manga sculptor is a veteran of contemporary, anime-influenced art. His work features audacious, mischievous, “Doji” (sacred children) carved from Japanese cypress with natural pigments and Japanese lacquer, in strikingly realistic three dimensional figures with expression-filled faces, whose brash antics have an innocent, humorous, impish quality.

The Spirit of Buddhism

YABUUCHI Satoshi is unique because he has imbued his doji (children) sculptures with the spirit of Buddhist statues. While his creations are not religious icons to be placed in temples, his doji do embody energy and a mysterious spirit. His works are deeply rooted in ancient Chinese culture. Yabuuchi Satoshi :: Six Caminou children The Chinese influence on Asia was as profound as the Roman influence on western civilization. The Chinese influence on Japan, both politically and culturally, was very strong through the 15th century. Japan is known for its magnificent wooden Buddhist statues made as icons and worshiped in temples throughout Japan for more than one thousand years.YABUUCHI Satoshi acquired the technique of restoring wooden Buddhist sculptures during his graduate studies at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. Having mastered the intricate skill of carving Buddhist sculpture, he began creating figures called doji (children). There is a Japanese saying that God dwells in children until the age of seven. YABUUCHI sculpts three-dimensional children.Each figure balances a serious quality with humor in a manner similar to manga* or anime, Japanese art forms that that have obtained international recognition in recent years.Yabuuchi explains the mysterious energy of children:

The children I create come from a different world and are miraculous beings possessing something holy. In the western world it is called spirit. The Japanese call it soul. In modern parlance it is referred to as the power of energy. There is a childlike energy involved in every phenomenon. As an example, it is the reason why sprouts shoot out of a seed and become leaves and flowers. Children represent innocence and wonder. They appear, sometimes mischievously, in different places regardless of time and space. Haven’t you had the experience of suddenly seeing an image of your child as a youngster when you visit places that you visited with that child years earlier? I am not trying to recreate real-life children. Mine are children who come from another world. In Japanese fables there are stories of children with mysterious power. Where does this mysterious power come from? I think the answer is the power of nature — a power that the Japanese people have always revered.

Thus the same profound spirit that has dwelled in Buddhist statues for centuries comes alive in the form of children who make dreams come true. YABUUCHI’s doji not only calm the mind but bring a smile to young and old.YABUUCHI, a professor at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music since 2004, is considered by collectors and curators worldwide to be one of the top contemporary sculptors in Japan. MANGA* Manga is the Japanese word for comics and cartoons. Though roughly equivalent to the American comic book, manga holds more importance in Japanese culture than comics do in America. Manga as people know it in the 20th and 21st centuries only really came into being after Osamu Tezuka, widely acknowledged to be the father of story-based manga, became popular.