獣の皮を被り 草の編みもの Donning Animal Skins and Braided Grass, Konoike Tomoko

I was immediately drawn to this life size, resplendent sculpture by Tomoko Konoike. Born in 1960 in Akita, Japan, Konoike became a professional artist in 1988 and created Donning Animal Skins and Braided Grass in 2011. Inspired by manga, Shinto animism, Noh drama, and pop culture, this piece presents a six-legged wolf. This wolf represents the larger Hokkaido wolves and smaller Honshū wolves. These wolves were completely exterminated in Japan, due to rabies and Japanese agriculture, when they adopted a strychnine-laced bait to kill any threat to their crops. But the question still remains, why six legs? I think the six legs are to show the specialty of this piece. I also think the beaming godlike aura supports this. Donning Animal Skins and Braided Grass was made to revive the spirit of the Hokkaido and Honshū wolves. Since the Hokkaido and Honshū are extinct, this six-legged wolf is the last representation of them. I can imagine this piece as something like Bigfoot. So special and elusive yet no one can provide evidence of such a thing. Sightings of such wolves have been reported, yet no proof has emerged. To me, I see it as the imagination of the people. How the sightings have gone from normal wolves into six-legged wolves into six-legged wolves with mirrors. Konoike’s purpose was to tell the story of all these wolves, not just one or two. Some might say, why care, we still have more wolves. But if we don’t change our actions now, we’ll regret it forever. Imagine you were a kid and you didn’t know what an elephant or a tiger was. We don’t want the new generations to miss out on these amazing creatures. We have to share this world whether we like it or not. That’s why I think Donning Animal Skins and Braided Grass is more than a bunch of mirrors on a six-legged wolf. This sculpture is not just about the story of the Hokkaido and Honshū wolves, but to teach us about our mistakes in our past. We never learn anything if we don’t make a mistake. So to me, this extraordinary piece of art by Tomoko Konoike is a lesson to protect our animals and all of our nature. This is Toby Kwan with another Bulldog Art Tour.