After moving to France in 1952, Kumi Sugai began, in the mid-1950s, to create works inspired by indigenous and traditional Japanese themes. These paintings employed forms reminiscent of Chinese characters and pictographs, rendered with vigorous brushwork. In ONI (1958), for example, the character for “oni” (demon) is transformed into a calligraphic abstraction, becoming a powerful pictorial form.During this period, Sugai further developed the visual language seen in ONI through a series of works including JISHIN, HIBIKI, and RAISHIN. These compositions feature recurring forms that incorporate bold straight lines and circular elements within structures resembling vessels or containers stacked one upon another. The resulting images create a sense of resonance and dialogue among their constituent shapes.
In particular, the present work shares many formal and chromatic characteristics with RAISHIN. Layers of scratched, rubbed, and scumbled marks are built up over a palette dominated by greyish whites and muted blues, emphasizing a rough and textured surface. These works suggest a raw and deeply personal expression through which Sugai, while living abroad, sought to evoke the Japanese sensibilities and memories that remained embedded within him