Recently I have been doing some more digital paintings of zen gardens, inspired by the aesthetic sense of "yūgen": the profound, mysterious beauty that is sensed rather than seen, and that suggests depths of experience beyond human understanding. I draw these free-hand on an Ipad with the Procreate app. I will add them to the "Drawings" section of my website soon.
Occasionally I like to browse through some of the books that I have lying around my studio for inspiration. A couple of years ago I found a short collection of essays "Three Japanese Buddhist Monks" from Penguin Books' series "Great Ideas" in a bookstore. On one page, Yoshida Kenkō (c.1283-c.1352) offers some insightful thoughts about house design which are in my opinion still valid to this day:
I was also reminded of this amusing story about the priest Jōshin, also told by Kenkō. I have great respect for strong personalities, people that dare to create their own meaning in the world and do what they want. Personally I have a proclivity for slightly more table etiquette, though (laughs).
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