KUROBIKARI

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Kurobikari 黒光り, literally translated as “black shine/luster,” this Japanese word can evoke emotions of revulsion and reverence. With the absence of light, black symbolised death, fear, and filth in diverse communities over time and space, and in contemporary Japan, kurobikari often conjures up images of ominously glistening cockroaches, crows, and filth. Yet it also points to the aesthetic category describing the luster of wood, charcoal, lacquer, metals, and calligraphy ink. A historically and culturally rich concept, kurobikari can be used to describe prehistoric Jomon-era pottery polished with soot produced from burnt organic materials, rendering shining black vessels for ritual practices. In literary texts, the term expressed the beauty of blackened teeth – a bodily practice which marked social maturity and later, female marital status—as well as the sinister description of the foreign “black ships” arriving in Japanese ports in the 19th century. Kurobikari disrupts and melds seemingly unrelated and antithetical categories and values, encompassing widely divergent sentiments with the colour black.

Text by Izumi Nakayama

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