This work was inspired by a moment when the tiny specks burned into a vintage photographic postcard suddenly resembled constellations. Building on that impression, I applied riso ink evoking a night sky over an image of a woman sitting in the seiza position. On top of that, I traced arbitrary “constellations” with correction fluid, adding a layer of blatant wordplay—seiza, the kneeling posture, is also a homophone for “constellation” in Japanese.
In the past, Japanese people lived closer to the ground, and many different sitting postures existed. But after the Meiji Restoration, kneeling with folded legs was institutionalized as seiza—the “correct” way to sit—and gradually became the norm. With this piece, I wanted to question the very idea of such constructed “correctness,” while also reflecting on how traditions are passed down—sometimes altered, sometimes corrected—layered here as a unique drawing.