10. Two Fish (Shogyo Nidai)

This is Two Fish, made in 1960. First, please look at these two fish. The work captures the fleeting instant as they slip, smoothly, down into the water. Can you not feel that they are about to start moving, even now? Where Shodo's masterful power of composition shows most clearly is in the way this piece is supported. Upon the base, the larger fish is held at four points, the smaller at three — each supported by its fins. It creates a natural stability, as if their forms, swaying in the water, had been fixed in a single instant, just as they were. And that, though made of metal, it appears somehow light — this, too, is one of the great hallmarks of Shodo's work.