Autumn Special Exhibition moji-e-moji — Words as Pictures / Pictures as Words

In Japan, word and image are intimately intertwined and at times are so closely tied as to become inseparable. Moji-e, or “word pictures,” include styles such as ashide-moji or so-called “reed script,” which has strong pictorial elements, or Buddhist paintings and caricatures in which images are rendered with written characters. Conversely, e-moji are comprised of works in which pictures become words, as, for example, in hanji-e picture puzzles, where images serve as phonetic representations of words to form a kind of riddle. It is possible to find a variety of different happy unions of picture and text in Japanese calligraphy, paintings, and decorative art objects.
The world that is brought forth by word and image has not only a formalistic beauty; it has an element of intellectual stimulation as well. Here we present a world-class Japanese aesthetic world that is at once clever and entertaining.