“As does the pheasant, when the day ends also I, go to rest alone. Long as the cock pheasant’s tail, will the hours of my night be.”

This painting began as a fluid improvisation, but soon crystallized around a 7th-century waka poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro. In his verse, the poet draws a poignant parallel between the immense length of a male copper pheasant's tail and the agonizing, seemingly never-ending passage of a night spent alone—a reflection of the long periods he spent separated from his wife due to imperial court duties.
The background is rendered in a turbulent, expressionistic style, capturing the restless torrent of thoughts passing through a sleepless mind. To amplify this raw vulnerability and profound sense of isolation, I depicted the human figure entirely nude. Rejecting a restrained, classical palette, I intentionally employed vivid, contrasting colors to manifest the psychological friction and emotional weight of a solitary night.
The English translation, i.e. the title is my own. The writing is in a cursive style, Gyousho.