Peter Blizzard is the only Australian sculptor ever to have been invited to hold a one-person exhibition at the prestigious Hakone Open-Air Museum in Japan.

This world-renowned sculpture park, two hours journey south of Tokyo, opened in 1969 and has an extraordinary collection; Rodin, Bourdelle, Brancusi, Boccioni, Miro, Marini and 26 major pieces by Henry Moore. Peter Blizzard's work was in very good company!    
For Blizzard, the Japanese connection began in a most unexpected manner. While a lecturer in the sculpture department at Ballarat University, one of his students, Kayo Hara from Japan, decided upon a career change. Rather than become an artist herself, she decided to become an arts consultant, a curator, or a gallery director. Returning to Japan she began her new career by organising an exhibition of Peter Blizzard's sculpture. Thus began his long and fruitful link with Japan.
    
The first exhibition she organised was at Kimuraya Gallery in Oita in 1994; it was a three-person show and included the paintings of a Zen Buddist monk, Tatsbuchi Junichi. He, in turn, invited Blizzard to stay at his temple; another link was forged. Tatsbuchi subsequently organised a further exhibition in Japan for the Australian sculptor, and Blizzard invited the monk to his home at Greendale and arranged a joint exhibition of their works at the Convent Gallery in Daylesford. It was an unexpected and stimulating combination of expressionistic works by Tatsbuchi, complemented by Blizzard's more contemplative, reflective works in stone.

From the start, Blizzard's work sold very well in Japan and over the following years he received a flow of commissions. Masui Kota of the Masui Shipping line was so impressed he flew the sculptor to Japan for a week to discuss various possibilities and then commissioned six works for the Sea Wave Hotel in Beppu. Cast in bronze, partly polished and partly patinated a sea-green, they were like linear drawings in space, while the addition of small areas of clear glass added a lighter, reflective quality. Further, between 1998 and 2001, Tsutomu Yamaji, a successful and wealthy surgeon, commissioned several works for two new hospitals he had built and for his own, private collection. He now owns seven works by Blizzard.

Why do the Japanese relate so positively to his work? Undoubtedly, Blizzard's deep-seated respect for nature - a basic tenet of the Shinto religion - is apparent in his sculptures, which frequently read as shrines, temples or tabernacles in which found rocks are elevated as objects of reverence. Japanese spectators immediately recognise his symbols for sun, moon, water, mountains, rivers and clouds; they note, too, his veneration for natural rocks and see links with the ancient animistic religion which still underlies Japanese beliefs. The artist tells of Japanese approaching one of his works, putting their hands on the stone and standing for several minutes with eyes closed. Not the reaction one would expect in Australia, he observed. 

Some of his symbolism, too, has sexual connotations, and again this would be recognisable to the Japanese who are familiar with the significance of the fertility goddess. No doubt this was partly behind the choice of Goddess Moon Stone used for the very large poster that was printed to publicize Blizzard's major exhibition at the Hakone Open-Air Museum, held late in 2006 - the references to the moon and the female form were subtle, yet easily recognisable. It's possible that Blizzard's upbringing as a Roman Catholic introduced him to the significance of symbolism; his frequent use of the triangle may indeed have a residual association with the Christian concept of the Trinity.

Peter Blizzard's recent and remarkable exhibition at Hakone was the direct result of Kayo Hara's persistent advocacy of his work. She had generated such interest amongst the curators that Ichikawa Shigeru, deputy manager at Hakone, actually visited Australia three times over a period of six or seven years, on each occasion visiting Blizzard's studio. A strong friendship and sense of trust developed.

The exhibition at Hakone revealed Blizzard as a major sculptor, to rank among Australia's best. Entitled Sacred Land it was a survey of sculpture from formative works such as Flight Over The Mountain, 1988, which illustrates his earlier interest in welded steel and formal abstraction to Wood Stone Totem, 1989, which hints at future developments. Set in the very large temporary exhibitions hall, the sculptures appeared as shrines, altars, monuments and memorials to nature. If local visitors did not fully understand the significance of the title, You Yangs Moon, 2005, (perhaps only Victorians would know of the You Yangs) they nevertheless would have interpreted the irregular horizontal line as the outline of a mountain chain, noted the circle representing the full moon, and appreciated the water-washed stone held high in veneration.

While our painters have found in the Australian landscape a great source of inspiration - from Buvelot to Streeton to Boyd or Nolan - our sculptors, in general, have looked elsewhere for inspiration. Norma Redpath's monumental bronzes of the 1960s perhaps, and John Davis' fragile constructions of the 1980-90s were influenced by their observations of the Australian bush, but only Peter Blizzard has commemorated Australia as the Sacred Land.

www.peterblizzard.com

Image: Peter Blizzard, You Yang's Moon, 2005, brass stone, 50 x 61 x 26cm. Courtesy the artist.