【Sculpture】Goko Shigunzo

Kengo Shibatsuji's "Goko Shiigunzo" is on display in Arakawa Park.
Explanation of the work
This is a depiction of exploring "shii" (thoughts) during the near infinite astronomic time scale of "goko" (five eons). As for the reason why I created a work with this theme, there is an existing depiction of the Buddha called "Goko Shii Amidabutsu," and this figure has a hairstyle akin to an afro from sitting and thinking for so long with a haircut. When I saw that statue, I was annoyed with the way my hair and beard kept growing and ignored them, so I could relate to that feeling. I expressed the feeling of being enveloped by your growing hair and beard with this work, "Goko Shiigunzo."
Within this group, there are also figures not enveloped by their hair and beards. These people represent a variety of stages in the journey such as those who have just started exploring their thoughts, those who are exhausted with uncertainty, those who are worried about something, and those seeking to discover enlightenment by brute force. Black granite has almost no water absorption and it is also resistant to wind erosion, so even a million years from now, this piece will still be there looking more or less the same. Even after a million years, these people who started exploring their thoughts will probably remain in the same positions, and I have no idea how many dozens of millennia finding enlightenment takes. I hope this gives you a sense of the permanence of this rock. Also, even people who live a long time only make it about 100 years, and everyone returns to the earth after that no matter how hard they think during that short time. I decided I wanted to express how impermanent all of us are through comparison to black granite.