Noguchi, through the eyes of realism, looks into his motif of man with traditional Japanese arms and armours.
Since he has been interested in classic oil painting and also fascinated by arms and armours from young age, the artist has united the two in his creation and practices something close to what is called Hyperrealism sculpture.
The concept of Japanese warrior, or Bushi, we have in our mind is often flooded with stereotypes of its strong aesthetics or idealism. On the other hand, Noguchi’s human figures appear very similar to how we are today. This is due to the artist’s endeavor to capture human in reality that is put before reproducing realistic armours.
In Noguchi’s expression, there is a chiasm of ‘What looks fictional but is actually real’ and ‘What looks real but is actually fiction’. Yet, we feel a touch of human in life in his world that offers us a sense of compassion.
Along with humour, there is always a subtle feel of pathos portrayed throughout his work, which perhaps comes from the artist’s view towards humanity.
Another beauty of the works is found in his technique. His deep knowledge and excellent skills enables fine details of armours and deteriorated effects on paintings. This fruitage has its roots in his original interest towards oil paintings. As an art student, Noguchi had specialized in oil painting throughout his life at college and learnt the techniques of realism expression from classical paintings. For this, studying antique colours and deterioration to deconstruct these into colours on his palette in order to reconstruct on canvas is not a special task for Noguchi.
Our time and history goes by from past to present, and towards future. However, the effort of human adapting to the change remains the same. The reality visualized by Noguchi’s series of expressions wakes us up to the glimpse of this ordinary fact.