Keiko Moriuchi, 大紅蟠桃 Donut Peach IV, 2025
Acrylic and 24k yellow gold leaf on canvas
22.7 x 15.8 x 3 cm
Condition: Very good
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パワーのある力強い桃。
A peach imbued with power and strength.
吉祥の桃。
An auspicious peach.
For Moriuchi, the peach is never just a fruit. In Eastern philosophy it is a powerful symbol of protection, vitality, and 不老長寿 fu-ro cho-ju (immortality and long life). Just as the West tells of Adam and Eve with the apple, the East looks to the peach as the fruit that carries life’s destiny. It is believed to drive away evil and to give strength against death, embodying humanity’s wish to live beyond its natural limits.
Moriuchi is especially drawn to the donut-shaped flat peach (蟠桃). Its circular form reflects eternal cycles and continuity, and she connects this directly to the Poincaré Conjecture in mathematics. The conjecture proposes that a three-dimensional space that is finite but has no boundary is essentially spherical in shape. For Moriuchi, the donut peach becomes a visual metaphor for this cosmic structure: a form that loops back into itself, suggesting a universe that is both infinite and whole.
In Donut Peach, earthly symbolism, Eastern philosophy, and advanced mathematics converge. The peach is at once a fruit of immortality and a model of the hidden geometry of the cosmos.
Inscription on the verso:
大紅蟠桃
Donut Peach
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Keiko Moriuchi 森内敬子 (Japanese, b.1943) is an artistic force to be reckoned with. Not only was she the final member to join the Gutai Art Association, but she was also the only member to be invited to join by Jiro Yoshihara (Japanese, 1905-1972), the collective’s founder.
Moriuchi creates paintings with stunning textures, underscored with deep spirituality. Spirituality radiates off Moriuchi’s canvases, as her compositions harken to sacred geometries and mythological symbols. Her works are almost akin to sculptural terrains, putting on layer after layer of Liquitex paint that accumulates on the canvas, which are then delicately gilded with gold. This signature use of gold leaf is not merely an aesthetic choice — as Moriuchi believes that gold has healing and purifying properties, and activates the divine energy points of the heart and mind. The heft of these surfaces embody the vigor with which Moriuchi uses to create these immensely tactile pieces, and even further, mirroring the intensity of artistic gestures of her Gutai peers.
(Photographed in October 2025)