Hikari-tsugi (Light Mending)
— Repairing the Broken with Light —
Hikari-tsugi takes its name from the traditional Japanese art of kintsugi, the practice of repairing broken objects with lacquer and gold, transforming fractures into sources of renewed value and beauty.
Rather than pursuing material restoration, these works bring light into absence, inviting the possibility of spiritual renewal.
Underlying my practice has always been a fundamental set of questions: Why does this world exist? What is consciousness? What does it mean to exist?
These questions gradually led my attention toward the nature of matter, our physical bodies, and the relationship between consciousness and the world around us.
Quantum physics suggests that the state of a particle is not fully determined until it is observed. It also proposes that our world is composed of countless particles and that, at the quantum level, matter, consciousness, and the act of observation may be more deeply interconnected than we ordinarily perceive. Rather than treating these ideas as scientific claims, I embrace them as one possible perspective from which to contemplate the nature of existence.
When light gathers within the missing parts of an object, a new form begins to emerge, as though scattered particles were reconnecting. The more deeply something has been broken, the greater its loss, the more powerfully it can receive and reflect light. Destruction is not simply an ending; it may also be the beginning of a new illumination.
At the same time, these works function as devices that awaken the light within the viewer.
Even in difficult times, our world—and our hearts—continue to transform, just as the seasons endlessly return. Like migratory birds crossing the harshness of winter, we continue our journey through pain and loss, carrying within us the possibility of discovering new light.
Hikari-tsugi is an ongoing exploration of the question, "What does it mean to exist?"—an attempt to reconnect the world and ourselves through light.
