Extract from the text of Samurai catalogue:
Samurai become an icon and at the same time a complex and sensible theme of the most recent work of the sculptor Ján Ťapák. It is a very brave aim to recast into iron the cult, myth about the soul, character and heroism of men with the sense of honor and with devotion, men whose martial art literally takes ones breath away.
I would say it takes the courage worth of a samurai.
Text: Ivan Melicherčík
Samurai become an icon and at the same time a complex and sensible theme of the most recent work of the sculptor Ján Ťapák. It is a very brave aim to recast into iron the cult, myth about the soul, character and heroism of men with the sense of honor and with devotion, men whose martial art literally takes ones breath away.
I would say it takes the courage worth of a samurai.
Text: Ivan Melicherčík
Samurai Edo
SIZE: 179x91x51 / TECHNIQUE: welded bronze
Samurai Miura
SIZE: 155x49x57 / TECHNIQUE: welded bronze
Samurai Nagao
SIZE: 69x53x56 / TECHNIQUE: welded bronze
Samurai Otomo
SIZE: 60x46x43 / TECHNIQUE: welded bronze
Samuria Rokkaku
SIZE: 90x75x63 / TECHNIQUE: welded bronze
Samurai Shimazu
SIZE: 69x97x37 / TECHNIQUE: welded bronze
Samurai Tokugawa
SIZE: 75x55x70 / TECHNIQUE: welded bronze
How to record in the still statue those meteoric movements of the sword that within one houndredth
of the second and without any hesitation swishes over the samurais head, how to instill that renowned bravery, humility, self-control, concentration, subtleness of each movement of the sword? The sword was an element of the soul of the samurai. The long sword called the katana had always horizontal position and the short sword - wakizaschi - was prepared on the belt. For a samurai the sword was
a holy steel, a sign of strength and inner balance, an ingredient of his character. The movements
of the sword had thousand kinds of forms in the fight. However, which one is the most fitting, the most substantial, which moment is the one that decides about the life and death? The sculptor had to ask himself also questions like this.
Ján Ťapák studied traditions, customs, garments, martial arts of samurai, details of actions, positions, sequences of the attacks and defense actions as well, tatics, laws of combat, those unbelievable movements that aided their executors to overcome imperfectness of human senses. He sought interconnection between ideas and movements of the samurai in the whirl of fight. For example, how
to insert in the statue the renowned samurais contempt of death? Simply, it was a huge challenge for him.
Text: Ivan Melicherčík
