English or Kanji? Unique "Ee Kanji" Art Form

KUNISHIGE Tomomi, "Ee kanji" artist

Anew art form called "Ee kanji" is catching people's attention. Take the kanji character for "sea," for instance. In this art form, the character is written on white paper using black ink and a strong brush stroke. Stare at it for a while and be amazed that it is able to be read as the English word, "SEA." The kanji for "love," written using calligraphy, can be read as the English word, "Love" after a while. The laughter of a baby with red cheeks can almost be heard when you see the word "smile."

The word designs come with choices of poetic words, creating a cute and pop art image of colors and styles, and sometimes consists of strong strokes. There are heart-catching messages for young women conveyed through characters such as "+Love" or "+ flower." The appealing message of strength in "+SEA" or "+dream," and free message in "+wind" seems to be appealing to men.

A founder of "Ee kanji" art is KUNISHIGE Tomomi (28), who is based in Yamaguchi prefecture. She is a shrewd artist with real talent hidden behind her cute smile. Hoping that she would develop beautiful handwriting skills, her parents made her learn calligraphy when she was 6 years old. Kunishige was hoping to become a calligraphy instructor at the time. She later thought, "After a long time spent learning calligraphy, I realized that imitating the great letters of somebody else means nothing. I want to create something of my own."

Every time Kunishige writes a word, she says an impression of the word always comes to her mind. When she was writing the word "truth" in English, instead of just drawing it letter by letter, she also formed an image of the actual meaning of the same word in kanji. At that point, the English word "truth" and its kanji equivalent are pictured together in her mind.

"When those two images overlapped, I could find a resemblance between them. Then something sprung into my mind," she says about a time she clearly remembers. "Is it possible for images of different forms of letters to be overlapped?" She was unsure of this possibility, but tried to picture other English words that overlapped with other kanji as well. With some other kanji characters and English words, she could create images of two different forms of overlapping letters in her mind.

Kunishige was a college student at the time. But until her graduation, she sought ways to establish rules; in other words, the equation of this new art form of expressing letters. Just as there was once only one continent on earth, some say there was once only one language. In the evolutionary process of mankind, if many kinds of letters, characters, and ethnic groups have descended from a single ancestor, it is no wonder that the images of different letters and characters for certain words look similar and overlap.

As kanji was imported from China and hiragana and katakana were created in Japan, Kunishige states, "there must be new letters able to be expressed by using English and Japanese!" She emphasizes, "Above all things, I want to stick to the idea of using kanji, which was nurtured and developed in Japan." "Ee kanji" is a unique art form based on a combination of the accumulation of rules, linguistic, anthropological and historical research, and blended with Kunishige's creativity.

Kunishige continues with some unexpected words. "I love mathematics. Finding the resemblances and picturing kanji and English characters together in mind is much like a logical mathematical approach." She never gives in to the idea of breaking and changing just anything, claiming, "It cannot be called a creation and attract a viewers' attention unless my own style and soul are put into the letters."

Media attracted to her talent that is spreading around the world
After graduating from college, Kunishige applied to become an entertaining "talent" in an audition for Hori Productions' talent scout tour. She was selected in the final stage of the audition and actually became a "talent." Working as a comedy talent for TV variety programs in the Osaka area, she also worked at other part-time jobs. Getting by was not easy for her. Her family was always supportive of her, but she insisted on being independent. As a result, she had to sew and remake her costume clothes using second-hand kimono, and had to take her art products to the streets and sell them to make ends meet.

Due to excessive work, Kunishige forgot to eat and became malnourished at one time. Now she puts up her own exhibitions at galleries and upscale department stores. At one stage, people around her did not quite understand her art. Some older men would tell her, "You are just a hip-looking young girl with a brush and you call this art?" However, she believed in herself and vowed, "Some day, I will definitely make my living with this!"

Kunishige is now married to actor NISHIMURA Kazuhiko, and maintains her life going back and forward between Tokyo and Yamaguchi, her home city. Theirs is a marriage of two artists. Kunishige says smiling, "My husband lets me do whatever I want." Her recent TV appearances include an appearance on the popular program "Odoru! Sanma Goten!!" with well known comedy talent Sanma, and on "The Wide" (both NTV). Kunishige has also created a title logo for the TBS program called "Wana Gona," which is attracting the attention of the media.

"Ee kanji," which represents different cultures blended into each character, can also be interpreted as "good kanji," and also "it's good" in Kansai dialect. Regardless, the pun makes sense since they are all pronounced the same way. Kunishige is also striving to make prints of her body, in the same way that fish prints are made. Putting black ink on her body, she says, "I threw all of me onto paper to create an art print of myself." "Ee kanji" art is earning a good reputation abroad and it will not be long until it is seen all around the world.

KUNISHIGE Tomomi website
www.horipro.co.jp/talent/SC080/

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