Last days

To close this period of the blog, here are some photos from Kyoto.  This is the Golden Pavilion.

This is the famous Zen garden, called Ryoan-ji and surrounding gardens.

This is the budo centre in the centre of Kyoto and I was very pleased to see many people wearing hakama, obviously on their way to training.  From the kit bags that were being carried, I suspect naginata training was about to start.

Here are some images from the side streets of Kyoto.

Here is the ryokan I stayed in, which beats a Western hotel any day.  There is something quite unique about sleeping on tatami mats and after a long day walking around in the rain and biting wind, the cosiness and austerity of the ryokan was exactly what was needed.

On Sunday I went to Shukoin Temple which is part of Myoshinji Temple.  Myoshinji Temple is where Suzuki had many discussions regarding Zen buddhism and is seen as the place Rinzai Zen emerged from.  This is Takafumi Kawakami, the vice abbot of the Temple who showed me Rinzai Zen's way of doing zazen.  Here he is holding the kaiseki, which is used to strike monks on the shoulders at certain pressure points if they are getting sleepy, or their posture breaks during zazen.  I enjoyed my time at Shunkoin as I was the only one there, which made it feel even more special. 

Here is the Temple's garden.  This garden, as with any proper Zen garden is a direct reflection of something in nature.  This particular garden is a reflection of Heian shrine. It also has two bushes within the garden which represent the two Shinto creator gods, Izanami and Izanagi. He also explained how Shinto and Buddhism merged so well; Shinto did not have any standard ethical or moral precepts, whereas Buddhism did.  So, when the two 'religions' met, they married together quite easily.

He then showed me a room which was painted about 350-400 years ago, representing the four virtues of Confucianism.

I spoke with him about my interest in wabi sabi and he then led me into a room which was not usually shown to the public.  Here we did a very informal tea ceremony, or chado, which was very beautiful and profound. I feel that this time at the Temple has been one of the most personally transformative moments of my time in Japan and seemed to concretise the trip.

So, today is my final day on Awaji island.  I sat and watched the sunset and reflected on my experience, both in learning moku hanga and also how philosophically my ideas have shifted since leaving London.  I will be sad to leave, but am now part of the 'Nagasawa family' as Keiko-san said earlier today.  I have also been invited back in 2010 for a conference on moku hanga, which I am excited about.  I am now looking ahead to the future and am excited about the potential for moku hanga in my work.  It will be interesting to see how the next year or so unfolds.

遠山の目付

The title of this post means 'gazing at distant mountains'. An Iaido term which means 'looking everywhere but nowhere in particular'. It is the state of mind that is desirable, meaning one is not distracted by, or attached to, one particular thing. The mind is not gripped by fear, the eyes are not blocking out what they do not want to see and as a result, the Iaido practitioner is free to move in whichever way is appropriate to defeat the 'attacker'. It means that the mind is calm and relaxed but simultaneously poised for movement should the need arise. Personally, I would describe this state as one of 'openess'.

This blog has arisen by the need to document an upcoming journey to Japan in two weeks. As an artist, I have been very lucky to be invited to Awaji island, off the coast of Osaka, to learn traditional Japanese woodblock printmaking techniques. The environment I am going to is very remote, far away from the perils of modernism that befall London where I presently live. So, these pages will be used to try and communicate, from both a personal and professional point of view, the process of going to, and returning from, Japan. It will also be used to discuss some of the ideas that have arisen from within my own practice of Iaido - without which, it would have never crossed my mind to go on the residency. Iaido opened up a new way of seeing the world which influenced my decision to go to Japan to explore more of the origins of the mindset that Iaido emerged from.