Kai-sao—The Hen Who Conceived a Child

When Yoshino spent a month traveling around Tibet he saw a cage of chickens kept by a food vendor. Being unaware, of course, that they would be eaten, the birds were themselves eating and seemed full of energy. He realized that the lives of people and chickens are connected, and he respected the birds for sacrificing themselves—however unwittingly—to us. Yoshino decided to create sculptures of fantasy beings that would reflect his respect for chickens and for all creatures and created in 2003 the “idol” Kai-roun—Dignity that resembles a venerable rooster. This work here borrows a term used in rural Thailand, where respect for chickens is a cultural norm. One day, when Yoshino saw a pregnant woman on a train in Tokyo, he remembered the hens in Tibet and created a lacquer idol in the form of a hen that reflects a mother who is with child.