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art but also illuminate how these exceptional men of the 11th century understood each other they are therefore tangible representations of the relationships between cultural giants of the distant past mi fu s verse on the scroll interprets his friend s painting of a withered tree as an intimate expression of oneself at an old age the pathos in mi fu s lament certainly resonates with what is known of su shi s experiences in exile in mi fu s other writings he speaks of how su shi condensed his emotions in the turns of his brush and the construction of his rocks and trees inset of the scroll entitled wood and rock this 1 000 year old scroll was recently auctioned at christie s in hong kong it sold for hk 463 600 000 or approximately 59 million usd kokan shiren 虎関師錬 1278 1347 31 wednesday oct 2018 posted by sam edge in suiskei 2 comments kokan shiren 虎関師錬 1278 1347 japanese rinzai zen patriarch and celebrated poet in chinese was the son of an officer of the palace guard and a mother of the aristocratic minamoto clan kokan studied under the celebrated chinese monk yishan yining their relationship can be regarded as the beginning of the golden age of the literature of the five mountains in japan he studied calligraphy under an additional chinese master huang shangu a portrait of kokan shiren is in the kaizoin of the tōfuku ji temple in kyoto japan the japanese monk kokan shiren dated 1343 painted by wang zhiweng our interest in kokan is for the similarities that many of us experience today when sharing our stones suiseki with friends his experience was recorded in his essay entitled rhymeprose on a miniature landscape garden take a few moments to read a portion of his essay and see how well it resonates with your own experiences what i liked to do for fun when i was a child was to gather up sacks of stones and pile them on a table near the window high and free when i reached middle age i felt ashamed of doing this and so i stopped becoming like any other ordinary person obtuse like a brick finally i have reached decrepit old age and i particularly dislike the sound of children s games in the summer so i had the children gather up stones in the corner of the wall i brushed them off and washed them preparing a green celadon tray with white sand on the bottom the result was poetry that would lighten your heart the landscape lent a coolness to the air and dispelled the heart a visitor saw it and exclaimed okay okay but it seems a little bald doesn t it i responded you see a pile of stones and fail to see the mountains the marvelous thing about miniature landscape gardens is that they are imitations of mountains and streams the base is made to look flowing waves and the cliffs are made to seem covered with vegetation sometimes you can see miniature gnarled pine or knobby plum you might see unusual blossoms or strange new shoots from their trimmed branches of course you will discover the utter vexation of your creations withering and wilting due to carelessness of slow watering and tending if you fail to exert yourself then you will simply fail to fashion a magnificent mountain and a smaller world among the smaller mounds and hills years ago i climbed to the top of mt fuji the climb took three days for two days i passed through areas of great trees and forests but on the third morning there wasn t a blade of grass to be seen at that point there were only great boulder like cliffs and purplish red stones it was like this for a number of miles until i reached the peak itself of course mt fuji is not unique in this respect as all peaks are without vegetation people who climb mountains do not dislike the so called baldness rather the love the sense of height these stones then just a number of inches tall and this tray roughly a foot across they are nothing short of a mountainous island rising from the sea jade green peaks penetrate the clouds and are encircled by them a blue green barrier immersed in water is standing straight up there are caves as if carved in the cliff sides to hide saints and immortals jetties and spits flat enough and long enough for fishermen the paths and roads are narrow and confined yet woodcutters can pass along them there are lagoons deep and dark enough to hide dragons so is it not fitting that i guard against weeds carefully watching and laboring over the thing taking delight in its total subtlety do you dislike the baldness of the small mounds and hills am i oblivious to the bareness of just the peak i sometimes pick a flowering branch and place it in a peak or in a ravine the alternations of plant life their blooming in the morning and fading in the evening are the splendor of the four seasons with their countless transformations and myriad changes so therefore i say that it doesn t have to be bare and it does not have to be lush another thing do you think this miniature landscape is big do you think it is small i will blow on the water and raise up billows from the four seas i will water the peak and send down a torrent from the ninth heaven the person who waters the stones sets the cosmos in order the one who changes the water turns the whole sea upside down those are the changes in nature which attain a oneness in my mind anyway the relative size of things is an uncertain business why there is a vast plain on a fly s eyelash and whole nations in a snail s horn a chinese philosopher has told us well what do you think my visitor got up from his seat and made his excuses he saw that these stones purified my senses and purified my intellect he realized that events are really not what they seemed and yet they enriched me i told him that he only understood what he perceived with his own eyes and did not understand my point of view at all i asked if he wouldn t like to sit for a while longer and study the matter afresh he said he would but there were no waves for him he said nothing more and i was silent after a while my visitor left without another word saihokushu ch 1 pp 1 2 an example of a miniature landscape garden kasuga gongen genki the miraculous tales of the deities of the kasaga shrine the kasuga gongen genki by court painter takashina takakane in 1309 is one of the earliest examples of the usage of stones and trees together to create contemplative art as seen from the following black and white insert from this painting an close up of the miniature garden in the painting kasuga gongen genki we can see what appears to be a pine a deciduous flowering tree and stones along with another stone in a pot above and to its right note as well the handles on this portable wooden tray thus allowing it to be moved about perhaps to be seen better from inside the home during this period kokan is describing his experiences in creating these miniature landscape gardens and what his viewing experience does for him personally it becomes clear very quickly that kokan and his friend see his display very differently a visitor saw it and exclaimed okay okay but it seems a little bald doesn t it his friend only saw a pile of stones with an admonition that it seems a little bald oh the times i have shown a stone display to a friend or acquaintance to hear the reply oh you collect rocks kokan replies to his friend i responded you see a pile of stones and fail to see the mountains in a simplistic way we could stop the evaluation of their respective viewpoints now one sees a pile of stones the other a majestic mountain that he continues to describe in vivid detail one seems to have imagination the other none kokan is describing the scene using his imagination and memories from prior experiences in nature while his friend s imagination seems non existent his friend like ours might at this point have at least engaged kokan to attempt to gain a better appreciation of what kokan was attempting to create and experience through this miniature landscape garden and accompanying stones as often our hope is that our visitors might do the same yet kokan s friend listens perhaps politely and at the end of kokan s vivid description of what he sees kokan asks well what do you think at this point one hopes for some engagement some interest to be shown in this display one might assume kokan was also waiting in hopes of some appreciation as well yet he like us was only met with only disappointment my visitor got up from his seat and made his excuses he saw that these stones purified my senses and purified my intellect he realized that events are really not what they seemed and yet they enriched me i told him that he only understood what he perceived with his own eyes and did not understand my point of view at all i asked if he wouldn t like to sit for a while longer and study the matter afresh he said he would but there were no waves for him he said nothing more and i was silent after a while my visitor left without another word so his friend made his excuses said nothing more and soon thereafter he left without another word can you feel kokan s disappointment don t you imagine kokan was hoping that his sharing of the enrichment he was receiving from this scene could also be enjoyed by his friend the offer for discussion to engage in conversation would have allowed his friend to at least gain a better insight into this garden display but as importantly into kokan himself what a missed opportunity now before we get all in a huff and declare that his friend seems not to be a friend at all if we allow ourselves to become introspective might we ourselves be that friend how easy it is for us to wax poetic about our stone displays but yet to encounter someone else s especially if it differs from our aesthetic how often do we see it as a little bald and then we sit or stand quietly and soon leave without another word with the exception of perhaps the ubiquitous good bye even worse today those without understanding often begin to lecture us on why our display is done incorrectly a topic for another day might we learn from kokan s essay to seek to understand what at first seems a little bald should we not at least put in a some effort if nothing more to support our friend and or companion i find that often when it comes to beauty we are quick to judge and slow to contemplate in less than a moment we process what we see attempt to categorize it apply a set of rules that we believe in and then if it doesn t resonate with us we simply dismiss it and we are done all of us have much to learn from kokan s essay perhaps we have much to learn from this quote within the essay to kokan s friend if you fail to exert yourself then you will simply fail to fashion a magnificent mountain and a smaller world among the smaller mounds and hills let s not fail at seeing and experiencing the magnificence of our imagination as we gaze upon ours and others stone displays let s be willing to exert ourselves the book of tea part iii 22 monday oct 2018 posted by sam edge in suiskei 7 comments the book of tea by okakura kakuzō 1906 this is the third part of this story and comprises the final section let us continue with kakuzō s writing on the tea ceremony the tea master kobori enshiu himself a daimyo has left to us these memorable words approach a great painting as thou wouldst approach a great prince in order to understand a masterpiece you must lay yourself low before it and await with bated breath its least utterance an eminent sung critic once made a charming confession said he in my young days i praised the master whose pictures i liked but as my judgment matured i praised myself for liking what the masters had chosen to have me like it is to be deplored that so few of us really take pains to study the moods of masters in our stubborn ignorance we refuse to render them this simple courtesy and thus often miss the rich repast of beauty spread before our very eyes a master has always something to offer while we go hungry solely because of our own lack of appreciation this so reminds me of a story that my good friend mas nakajima relayed to me in one of our study sessions mas teacher mr hirotsu spent many afternoons discussing suiseki with him on one occasion he gifted him with a stone gift to masahiro nakajima from his teacher mr hirotsu photo used with permission an eel river stone on a painted fine base 4 5 x 3 5 x 4 mas was in his mid 30s and had admired a number of mr hirotsu s suiseki when he was gifted with the stone above mas was quite unhappy he had hoped to be gifted with a more traditional stone which would show the beauty of a landscape as he told this story a large smile came across mas face as he continued to describe to me that his appreciation for this stone has grown over the years as he realized that mr hirotsu was teaching him that the spirit of zen in the stone can far outweigh the style of the stone mas continued to describe the stone in attributes of it being quiet humble and very modest if you would like to acquire this interview of mas and his wife janet it can be found in the magazine works and conversations number 32 entitled living on earth you can obtain a copy by emailing rew1428 gmail com if you would like to read this article online please click here janet and mas december 4 2016 as mas was my mentor i took this story to heart as i vividly recall times he would look at a stone that i had found and remark that is was good suiseki i struggled to see it frankly and that was quite exasperating the best example of this occurred on a collecting trip with him and his wife janet to a lake in northern ca known for its beautiful jasper stones it was coincidentally my birthday and i very much looked forward to this trip as it was just the three of us that day to have time alone with your mentor is to be treasured mas and sam studying a stone on the trinity river in 2013 after an early morning of collecting i decided to take a long walk to an area where we rarely found anything approaching a stone to take home during my walk westward along the lake i happened to notice a stone that appeared to have a pool in it i picked up the stone to note that it has no evidence of jasper whatsoever what i was focusing on collecting but the pool was interesting the issue was that the stone was very dark gray it has bumps or nodules on both the front and back and the pool was not very wide but very deep in the stone i must admit that i more than once thought about putting it back down on the ground as it wasn t full of color nor was the pool what i thought it should be for a pool stone however if i had learned anything it was when in doubt put the stone in my backpack and show it to mas during lunch after our lunch at the top of the largest hill overlooking the lake i summoned sufficient courage to take the stone out and show it to mas he became very quiet i have to admit that quietness was unsettling i had experienced enough times bringing stones to mas in my early days of collecting for him to politely but firmly inform me that the stone wasn t good suiseki thus...