NEO MANEKINEKO

While visiting New York, Koga spotted a "maneki-neko" in a shop with no apparent connection to Japan. Surprised by its striking presence even within a foreign culture, this experience became the impetus for this series.
Koga's style is grounded in the classical forms of Japanese art. His signature piece {Hoyoroi Sakazuki}, for instance, takes as its motif the "kawari-kabuto" (distinctively individual helmets) of Warring States warlords, reborn as a contemporary form. The same is true here. Based on the typical maneki-neko form, this piece incorporates the expression of the "kaen-gata" flame-rimmed vessels of Jomon pottery — arguably the origin point of Japanese art history — installing into the work the history and aesthetic sensibility handed down through generations of ceramics. In this way, the role long carried by the "maneki-neko" is inherited, updating it into a new "maneki-neko" for the present day.