This article appeared in Tokyo Weekender Vol. 2. To read the entire issue, click here .
Flung out to the wind, an arm desperately tries to escape the clutches of its own body, perpendicular to a horn atop its form, pointing up toward the heavens, as feathers and swirls move and rage around in complex labyrinthine shapes. It’s living, but it isn’t: This is one of Heishiro Ishino’s incredible sculptures, dreamed up from the depths of the 32-year-old’s bottomless imagination, concocted through the lens of Japanese mythology. The Kobe-born contemporary artist has been sculpting since his teens, and before that, his school books were covered with drawings of mythical creatures inspired by the movies he loved: sci-fi, fantasy and panic horror from across the world, from Alien to Godzilla .
Ishino initially wanted to work in the movie industry. He did so part time in his teens while creating his own sculptures as a hobby, but balked at the creative constraints that came from working in film; once he realized that he’d have to bend his work to the will of future clients, he gave up on his Hollywood dreams. At age 20, following an epiphany he had when visiting the graduation exhibition for Tokyo University of the Arts, he decided to see if he could make a living as an artist.
He enrolled in an art university near his home, winning a Spiral Independent Creators prize in his sophomore year, which led to an ongoing relationship with the gallery that sponsored the award. Since t.
