A Movie? - Why not?Sometimes, when I look at a painting or hold an object in my hands, I fall into a dreamlike state. I dream of long-ago events, faraway...
Manners, Money, and Modernity.In reply to a telegram the Iemoto dips his brush in ink and writes this beautiful, well-spaced, but humble letter about manners, money,...
Perfection is NonsenseIn Japan, when prized ceramics, especially those associated with chanoyu (the tea ceremony), were broken or damaged, they would be mended...
Creating without idling is rare and praiseworthy. - Do not give up!This letter is about fish and poetry, about gratitude and sorrow. Ishikawa Jozan was a prominent Samurai recluse, garden designer, and...
Birds, Boats, and Cherry BlossomKarsumaru Mitsuhiro was a distinguished poet and a major figure in the inner circles of Emperor Go-Mizunoo. Karasumaru Mitsuhiro,...
Beyond Failure or SuccessKodojin - the Old Taoist - was both a poet and a painter. And he is remembered as being one of the last in a long line of literati...
Monumental FragilityAn ambiguous tea bowl. It is monumental and in the same time it is shy, reclusive, and fragile. Rengetsu delicately finger-pinched the...
More than Zen and pickled radishTakuan Soho was the prototypical early Edo monk scholar with a sharp, witty, and untamed spirit. Dressed in a monk’s robe he pursued...
An expression of respect, esteem, and gratitude by Matsumura Keibun... and about mending an umbrellaNo doubt that Shibata Zeshin was the most prominent lacquer artist of the nineteenth century. And Ikeda Taishin (1825–1903) was his most...