〈Painter’s words〉

Hailar is at north latitude 50° approximately. The sun doesn’t reach any great height. It rises in the east then rolls across the southern sky before slinking away in the west. At midday it beats down on the grass plains as if to bake them into submission. The sun that was about to set in the western horizon looked a bit larger at all times. But, I could not appreciate its beauty, because I was feeling as if I was trapped in a prison. The sun’s rays were lost to me. The sun itself appeared to have ceased playing a symbol of hope. Sometimes it seemed to me that it looks like a big black disc in the sky.

Siberian Series (Shinchosha, 1971)

Kazuki Yasuo 1911 – 1974
Born in Misumi-mura (now Misumi, Nagato City) in Otsu-gun, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Studied oil painting at Tokyo School of Fine Arts, then taught fine art while producing works that were primarily exhibited at Kokugakai (National Painting Association). Kazuki was sent to fight in the Pacific War (WWII), then interned in Siberia after the war. This experience resulted in the Siberia Series, which won the inaugural Japan Art Grand Prize in 1967. This series is considered an important body of work that still resonates widely today.