Detail of Dai ji zai
Mu Ichi Butsu
I have recently attended two Zen Brushwork workshops which are only allowed to happen online due to current restrictions.
The first workshop was beamed into my studio from Kyoto, Japan and was led by Sarah sensei and Inoue sensei. The whole experience was new to me, involving strict disciplines of Zazen (sitting meditation), Yoki-Ho (30 minute warm up exercise), Kusho (writing in the air) followed by painting the Kanji (Japanese characters) with Japanese ink and brush. The Kanji we painted was Dai ji zai, translated variously as ‘complete freedom’, ‘great freedom’ or ‘great unhinderedness’.
The second workshop was led by Jos Hadfield, working from Cornwall, again on Zoom. The Kanji we painted was Mu Ichi Butsu, which translates as ‘Owning no-thing’.
I really enjoyed the gestural mark making but fully appreciate I have a long way to go with this discipline which also feeds back into my study of Tai Ji and my painting.
