Calligraphies and Art Works

Within the culture of East Asia, mastery of the brush encompasses the highest of all art-forms. There is a long-standing tradition (as there is also in the west) that the character is communicated directly through the writing. For centuries, collectors have gathered samples of the writing of admirable people.

There are many styles of calligraphy. The Zen style, called in Japanese, bokuseki, ‘ink traces’, is often characterised by bold, assertive, and informal brush strokes embodying the calligrapher’s enlightened presence. Technique, clarity and comprehensibility are all considered less important than this directness. A Westerner, who doesn’t read characters and an Easterner who does, may not be in a very different position when it comes to ‘reading’ the work of the Zen masters. Bokuseki invites a heart-level meeting with the artist’s presence transmitted through the encounter of brush and paper. For those of us unable to live day-to-day with a Zen master, the “glad and joyful” presence spoken of by the Cloud of Unknowing above can thus be touched through living with the artwork.

This can be found, for example, in the apogee of Japanese culture, the tea ceremony. Although, architecture, garden design, flower-arranging, cuisine, ceramics, and many other arts contribute, they can all be seen as providing the perfect context in which to encounter the awakened awareness within the centrepiece—the scroll painted by a Zen master hanging in the teahouse alcove.

Generally speaking, Zen masters will turn their attention towards painting and calligraphy in later years. The works here are created after half a century of full-time Zen cultivation by a fiercely independent master.