Tadao Okazaki

Tadao Okazaki was born in wartime Tokyo. Okazaki and his ancestors have belonged to the Soto Sect of Zen Buddhism. Today, he lives in the Japanese North-east by former Fushiguro Village where his ancestors and parents had lived. His parents were successful wholesale merchants in Tokyo until the World War II. Two of his mother's brothers were air force pilots and died over the Pacific:
The birth of Ma concept and American nature abstraction paintings.
Japan is known for its love of “Ma,” or “negative” or “relative” space between objects or between time-points.
Although Japan is expected to have numerous paintings enjoying the void of Ma, it is difficult to actually identify the ones that use the physical void:
Most of the paintings known for their “space” have spaces of varying gradations of values, which simply represent air, mist, fog or cloud—Visual void is not relevant here. A typical example is the famous “Pine Woods,” National Treasure of Japan, P161, Vol.12 The Complete Works of Japanese Art, Kodansha 1992, by Hasegawa Tohaku, which was one exception to his mostly decorative paintings of space‐occupying images resembling those of the Kanoh School.
Rather, Okazaki considers the famous cloud-like “Suyari-kasumi” (“Lance-fog,”) painted like wide horizontal fingers of clouds which hide strategic areas of bird's-eye sceneries are actually a small “Ma” that functions to create physical, temporal and psychological spaces in ancient Japanese paintings (p186, Vol. 12., The Complete Works of Japanese Arts, Kodansha 1992.)
Japan does have some works which have functioning visual void in the paintings such as “Shrike,” Important National Cultural Asset of Japan, P232, Vol.17, The Complete Works of Japanese Arts, Kodansha 1992, by Miyamoto Musashi, the swordsman‐author‐artist of the 17th century.
Hosokawa Nariyuki, also a noted samurai like Musashi, above, has an episode significant enough to a student of Ma:
After receiving a consent from another samurai to add a verse to his finished landscape painting of the southern Kishuh (Wakayama Prefecture) Pacific coast, Hosokawa respectfully produced a completely blank sheet of Kozo mulberry paper—and the other samurai calmly obliged by calligraphing a verse along the top of the sheet.
One explanation is that because all, including the beautiful Kishuh coast vista, is nothing after all, as known in Zen, blank space which is filled only with light also should legitimately represent the true scenery (P168, Vol. 12, The Complete Works of Japanese Arts, Kodansha 1992; P162, Vol.16, The Complete Works of Japanese Arts, Gakushuh Kenkyuhsha, 1996.)
One explanation is that because all, including the beautiful Kishuh coast vista, is nothing, void, after all, as known in Zen, blank space on paper also should legitimately represent the true scenery (P168, Vol. 12, The Complete Works of Japanese Arts, Kodansha 1992; P162, Vol.16, The Complete Works of Japanese Arts, Gakushuh Kenkyuhsha, 1996.)
He went further to satisfy himself by removing colors from many of the fragments—he had been a black-and-white photographic print maker.
Okazaki's paintings were exhibited in these fragments on gallery walls. e.g., The Three Friends Exhibition, TCI Gallery, New York 2008. June19 – July 18, 2007; A haiku poem ( " sitting quietly/ in a mountain clearing/ bird song more and more. " by L.A. Davidson, former President of The Haiku Society of America) was written on one of these fragments.
Ma painting.
Hudokai, Okazaki's limited ten-member national art society, has published over the past 30 years approximately 75-thousand copies of its exhibition catalogues (Founder, Mr. Nobuo Suzuki, 1- 21- 13 Gakuen-Higashi-Machi, Kodaira-Shi, Tokyo 187- 0043; Headquarters, Mr. Takaaki Koba, # 804, Fujimidai 2- 15- 8, Kunitachi-shi, Tokyo 186-0003 Japan.) Each issue carried his painting, among the others', in the following style:
Poetry.
His poems gained such prizes as: Special Prize from "Modern Haiku Magazine" Cicada Prize from "Cicada, the Journal of Canadian Haiku Society"
He has published his three-line and free-verse haiku poems in Frogpond, The official journal of the Haiku Society of America; Modern Haiku; Cicada; New Cicada; Bottlerocket (in press) ; Contemporary Haibun and others.
Published “Free verse haibun” poetry, where the traditionally prose part of haibun is replaced with English free-verse.
Okazaki Proposed “Haiku-Ballad Theory,” that defines classical haiku form as a tri-meter/ tetra-meter/ tri-meter iambic triplet ballad.
Okazaki is an old member of the Haiku Society of America, and one of very few Japanese who writes and publishes English language poems overseas. He edited New Cicada, an English haiku journal that showcased the works of representative contemporary American and European haiku poets, for 10 years, in Fukushima, Japan.
Published comments related to Ma paintings.
“Beautiful. . . completely original.”
Charles Reid, Member of the National Academy
“ IMAGINE – Viewers’ Ma “ 
“Tadao Okazaki’ s work is a performance of sumi and mulberry paper. The imagination of the reality brought about with his solid descriptive technique gives enormous depth and width to his painting.” 
“.. . audience are enjoying his “Ma” Concept paintings and watermedia works. Ma is how not to fill up a space, and Okazaki's one-month long show in New York City this past May had gathered much praise.” 
“Okazaki used sumi and mulberry paper in painting ‘Untitled,‘ where the fibers of paper and the flow of sumi inspire the audience toward various imagination and views.” 
“.. . “How not to fill a space” is the “Ma Concept,” that Mr. Okazaki has proposed... Every painting carries clear images in only small part of the picture space, and the imagination of the viewer is much activated... His works have been displayed at many domestic and overseas locations, and highly praised... ” 
“Tadao Okazaki is unique with his apparently informel-like atypical style.”
“.. . Okazaki’s simplified painting style entertains the audience by stimulating their imagination.” 