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THE ART & DESIGN OF IKIGAI

Tomoko Kawao

Japanese calligrapher

Tomoko Kawao, one of Japan’s most high-profile shodō (calligraphy) artists today, is behind the art of Ikigai. She started her practice of the art at six, taking up shodō classes in which she discovered her talent. In 2004, she took up apprenticeship with the shodō master Shoshu, embarking on the path to become a shodō artist after graduating from the university.

Now an artist in her own right, Tomoko has won multiple awards in Japan and abroad. Her works have appeared in the Rugby World Cup official movie and the opening film for NHK’s popular historical drama “Yae no Sakura”. She has also written signs for the Kyoto and Hankyu Arashiyama train stations, as well as the title of NHK’s new show, “Kyo koto Hajime”.

One of her masterpieces – Correlation (Ko-ō) series – focuses on brush movements in the air. Apart from two dark points of each piece of work, the myriad lines created were traces of ink dripping onto the paper from her brush above as it moved through between the two points. The other and more recent Hitomoji series sees the artist include herself as part of the characters and completed work.

My Ikigai

is shodō

What did you hope for Ikigai to convey?

As a concept, the idea of living in the present moment.

How does Ikigai reflect your philosophy of art?
What challenges did you face?

As I created this piece, I made a conscious effort to focus on the flow of the writing, from start to finish, to not once let the brush stop moving. As I expressed in an earlier series of works titled Ko-ō, the droplets of ink that fall onto the work are a way of tracing the brush’s movement through space. Though each written character is a separate form, they are all connected by a single thread of movement. I liken this to the temporal movement of our lives – something that’s impossible to backtrack on, and also impossible to jump forward through. I want to express the spirit of living truly and powerfully in the moment.

What was most challenging was determining the amount of ink. I experimented many times with differing amounts of ink in the brush, in order to achieve just the right expression in the ink drop traces.

What kind of emotions emerged and empowered you when you created this work?

While I am creating a work, I focus completely on it, to the point where I cannot hear anything around me. In this moment I feel I am truly alive. Then once I have finished a piece of calligraphy, any sense of achievement I funnel into energy for my next one.

“I was reminded

Just how essential
calligraphy is to my life.”

What are the differences between writing in English and in kanji characters?

Obviously there are linguistic differences between English, which is a phonetic alphabet, and kanji, which is an ideographic script whose characters each carry a distinct meaning. But when writing in English, I think of an entire word as if it were a single kanji character, and express it in such a way that the brush strokes and the flow of the form are unbroken.

What does Ikigai mean for you?

Through this work I was given the opportunity to think about my own ikigai, and once again, I was reminded just how essential calligraphy is to my life.

What is your ikigai and when and how did you find it?

In my junior high school and high school days, I became quite ill, and calligraphy was what got me through that time. Later, at university I came to a point where I was considered giving up the practice forever. That’s when I realised that I truly could not live without it.

How has it guided your personal and artistic journeys?

I believe that the expression I can accomplish through calligraphy is a link between me and the society. This is where my ikigai comes from. My next duty is to think about how I can give something back to the art form itself.

Yip Yuen Hong

Award-winning architect

Ikigai is designed by four-time President’s Design Award winner Yip Yuen Hong and finds its unique place in Novena, the storied neighbourhood that is a juxtaposition of modern swanky architecture and cafes, and heritage shophouses and old bungalows.

Yuen Hong is an advocate and a practitioner of a solutions-driven design approach in which simplicity takes centrestage. That simplicity from distilling complex requirements to create a space that brings excitement and magic is thus, his ikigai.

My Ikigai is distilling complexity

My Ikigai is
distilling complexity

into a simple form
that delights

into a simple form that delights

What is the design concept behind Ikigai?

My concept is to create something of great serenity, of quietude and calm. It’s because I’m reacting to the noise that we have, the sort of visual noise that we have in abundance. From the user’s point of view, you’d be looking for clean, very no-fuss kind of look. Very subtle, very understated.

How does your design philosophy speak to the brief for Ikigai?

My tendency is to go for a simple and authentic expression. The vision is to create a sense of luxury with a minimal palette and finishes.

I’ve limited myself to using char wood, which is reinforced concrete with char wood texture. It [char wood] is a materiality that’s not much used or seen in this part of the world. What I’m trying to do is use this material and continue it all the way to the inside, with different types of wood, different tones of granite.

The idea is to have the two extremes in materiality – on the one hand something very brutalist, while on the other side, something very polished. For instance, when we use granite against char wood, this contrast of the polished versus the brutalist – from two different ends of the spectrum – result in something that’s very elegant.

It’s not easy to do, but this is what we’re striving towards. We want to create some kind of delight and excitement that lifts the spirit, and hopefully this will be that little magic we conjure up in the architecture.

“...a haven for people to be themselves

and to express themselves”

What does the design of Ikigai embody?

I’m trying to create a sanctuary, a haven for people to be themselves and to express themselves. It is also a refuge for people to shut down from the world and if possible, shut their minds too.

The colour scheme is very muted. The exterior is grey, almost black, with dark tinted glass curtain walling. Internally, we have different shades of grey, a variety of granite, and also different types of wood. We try to push the architectural expression to achieve something unique and different. 

What’s your ikigai?

My design philosophy is about distillation but at the same time, to provide a practical living space for the homeowners. It is much in line with the modernists’ theory of Form follows Function, but with a dash of magic thrown in.