KAN YASUDA wind, water, fire, and earth
The essentiality and the joyful life are the most significant characteristics of San Francesco. I believe that we are able to trace these in the works of the Japanese sculptor Kan Yasuda. These characteristics are deep foundations in the whole metier of Yasuda's art: signs, lines and bursting force. There is a Song for life..
All praise be yours, my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air, and fair and stormy, all the weather's moods, by which you cherish all that you have made.
All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Water, so useful, humble, precious and pure.
All praise be yours, my Lord, through Brother Fire, through whom you brighten up the night. How beautiful is he, how cheerful! Full of power and strength.
All praise be yours, my Lord, through our Sister Earth, our mother, who sustains us and governs us, and produces various fruits with colored flowers and herbs.
This canticle of San Francesco, in recalling the four elements of the sublunary world, reminds of the functionality, the dynamism, and the gift of the life. There is also a harmony woven within relating to both the masculine and the feminine - wind, water, fire, and earth! The harmony and the liberty of the Saint of Assisi are revelations of devotion and charity, and even today they present a conscience and a liberty of everyone.
We have to turn back in order to look upwards and over the hills. Then you will see, as a reality, the joyful Origin. I believe this consciousness is expressed by Kan through the purity in his sculptured marble of our earth.
Father Vincenzo Coli
Custodian of the Holy Convent
2006
