LARGER THAN LIFE

This great illustration came from a 1999 issue of ART GRAPH and shows the imposing scale that Tsukigata Nahiko worked at in clay to produce monumental bronzes. In this photo, clearly shown at the right of the photo is the original maquette of this sculpture and is close to the scale of the edition bronzes of his various subject, in this case the great 16th century warlord, Uesugi Kenshin. I have seen quite a number of Tsukigata's larger than life sculpture and even more of his maquette editions but this was the first photo I had seen of a work in clay, being fine tuned and made ready for the casting process. Capturing the living in this static plastic rendering is only further enhanced by the attention to detail and attributes that make the subject matter immediately identifiable but this should comes as no surprise from the hand of the Picasso of Japan.