Alana: The industrialization of production that happened in the 20th century led to an economic boom worldwide. Currently, humans produce and consume more than ever before. This universal productivity, which appears seemingly beneficial on the surface, has led to people placing value on a fast-paced life.
Alana: As students, we experience this through what is called “hustle culture.” Being busy all the time, doing extra work and many activities, is seen as virtuous. This culture favors productivity and living slowly is seen negatively, likened to laziness.
Alana: Through the experience of meeting the zen master and the shokunin, we were all reminded of the necessity of slowness. Initially, we saw this interaction with zen. We also saw firsthand the value of focusing on the processes of creation, rather than only the outcome. An object produced without intention behind it, without mind and soul, will not have inochi. To create an object with inochi, time is required. Soul cannot be, or should not be, rushed.
Kevin: Inochi as it relates to time appeared initially with our interaction with Ito-sensei at the beginning of our trip:
Kevin: Coming into the guided Zazen meditation practice, I had a lot of questions and uncertainties. Personally, I have practiced meditating in the past but my experience has always been plagued with attempting to get the perfect form, the clearest state of mind, and changing locations to find the perfect quiet spot. As a result, my understanding of meditation was tainted by these clouded judgements.
Kevin: When I entered the Ryokosuin-Ji temple, my mind immediately started racing. Will I enjoy this experience? What if I am not doing this correctly? Am I the only one who will not get this? I pondered.
Kevin: Questions continued to race through my mind as Ito-sensi introduced himself but slowly halted after his explanation of Zazen. He mentioned that sitting without movement is not the goal of meditation – you can sway around. You do not need to chase after your thoughts, as letting them roam free will eventually tire them out. You can meditate anywhere, and meditation is accessible to anyone.
Kevin: After the second round of meditation, I felt my understanding of Zazen meditation expanding, my mind concentrating intently on the practice, and I craved more knowledge of its intricacies. Ito-sensei mentioned that there are three important goals to Zazen
- To connect with the environment
- To connect with the self
- To eliminate the barrier between the environment and oneself
Alana: These elements heavily relate to the ideas of Zen in the sense of removing stimulus and removing distractions, which is incorporated through the removal of personal boundaries between the self and the environment in Zazen. In connection to inochi, the time you spend engaging in these meditative practices acts in a way that helps heal your soul – a grounding process. Although it is a time-consuming process, the benefits are self-evident.
Alana: For me, in the final fifteen-minute meditation, which felt like five minutes, I have only begun to unravel the sophistication of the Zazen. When Ito-sensei revealed the time, I was shocked as I had expected the period to have been shorter. At that moment, I felt that perhaps time is not as absolute as I had imagined. Surrounded with clocks and devices that tell us the exact time constantly, I felt time to be more relative in this instance.
Kevin: After our interaction with the Zen master, time as it relates to inochi became ever present in our interactions with the shokunin: Keiko Udaka-sensei and Keikou Nishimura-sensei.
Kevin: Udaka-sensei is a Noh mask carver who comes from a long line of Noh performers and carvers. Generally, time plays a significant role in the art of Noh mask-making: the maker needs time to establish a relationship with the creation.
Kevin: Udaka-sensei mentioned that the advent of 3-D printers allowed for the perfect and most precise Noh masks to be made. Perfection is inherently subjective, but 3-D printers can produce an exact copy of the original blueprints of the masks. However, the art of Noh mask carving is far more than this “idealized” or “mechanic” perfection.
Kevin: Udaka-sensei says a Noh mask can technically be made in two weeks. However, she chooses to spend a month, double the time, to make a mask. This intentional process is because she values the dialogue that takes part in her art-making process. In fact, she may not carve on some days if she believes the mask does not want to be carved. The time she spends allows her to speak to each section of the wood block meant to create the masks.
Kevin: Udaka-sensei values this slow process. Her lengthy process proves her dedication to her craft and her actions help imbue the mask with inochi. If she believes she should have spent more time with the mask, Udaka-sensei revisits the work until she brings the mask the justice it deserves.
Kevin: In art making, spending time with the craft is necessary. It is a lesson I have been learning at the College studying artists and practicing art, and a lesson I had hoped to develop on this trip. After my interaction with Udaka-sensei, I have been able too.
Kevin: One of the main reasons I was so interested in this opportunity was because I was curious to learn about how shokunin view their works and how this time quality element flows through their practice. I remember in one of my classes, reading about the artist Mark Rothko, known to sit introspectively and view his works for hours on end, who said, “Most of painting is thinking… Ten percent is putting paint onto the canvas. The rest is waiting.”
Kevin: Although I understood the premise behind that idea, I never really put much thought into exactly what it means to think and have a dialogue with your work. My interaction with Udaka-sensei truly placed this idea into perspective. It is through time for the value and the essence of work to truly shine, and through time, that brings a work a sense of power. It is also why specific older masks have a special aura more than newer ones.
Kevin: Another critical aspect of time relates to the appreciation of the collection process and the time it takes to collect and refine the tools necessary to build and develop the Noh masks. Although carving the Noh mask begins literally with carving the cedar wood blocks, it truly begins with the growth of the tree, its cultivation, and the decades-long drying process required in sourcing a block of wood.
Kevin: In this period of commercialization, individuals frequently only get ahold of the final product and often forget the labor involved in creation. We need to remember the lengthy process and the many hands required to create just one thing. Understanding this lengthy process can help individuals bring more life into the products they consume.
Kevin: Udaka-sensei also mentioned the value of time as it relates to storing memories. The dialogue of her creation of the mask of the decorated man from Matsuhama, based on a famous story of a man who planted his barley to grow into new plants for his community, stood out to me remarkably.
Kevin: Although the creation of the mask was a way to commemorate the man, Udaka-sensei explained its connections to her late father. Her late father created a similar mask and script for the play, but he passed before finalizing the play. Instead, her brother finished the script, and Udaka-sensei helped create a new mask that held the visage of her father. The memories she has of her father is contained in the mask. With how fast-paced time can be, memories can flee. But through art, one can preserve such memories.
Alana: Another artist that made us reflect about our perspectives on time was Nishimura-sensei. Nishimura-sensei is an Urushi painter. Creating a single urushi object involves a lot of time. Nishimura-sensei walked us through the whole process: from the moment the urushi tree is planted, and the moment the tree that created the object itself is planted, there can be at least 50 years necessary until the object is ready to be used. Urushi trees take around 15 years to grow to a moment when they can be used to harvest urushi. The wood, in order to be carved, needs to be dried for 10 to 15 years as well. With the lengthy time required to cultivate Urushi, a process that can take decades to complete a singular work of art. It is all that time that makes the object become precious.
Alana: I am very interested in sustainable production and sustainable living. I look around me and struggle to know how to live sustainably in our current world. Learning about the production process of urushi taught me some useful lessons.
Alana: Urushi is a lengthy process. It is produced at the pace of nature. Urushi collectors, refiners and painters do not rush the process of growing urushi. It is not possible. Every step of the process requires time and care. Urushi cannot really be mass produced. Shokunin that work with urushi, work at the pace of nature. They do not expect nature to keep up with the fast pace that we live in currently.
Alana: I thought that the work of Nishimura-sensei, and his lengthy and mindful process of Urushi painting goes entirely against the status quo, and in a restorative direction.
Alana: Nature cannot really keep up with the fast paced nature of human life today. We are able to cross the world in fourteen hours, and communicate with one another instantaneously, no matter the distance.
Alana: Fast fashion and single use products dominate the world today. Some products are made with expiration dates in mind, so that people will be forced to purchase new ones, keeping the markets moving.
Alana: I found Nishimura-sensei’s perspective on time very refreshing. He creates with the understanding that his products will continue to be used for generations. In his partnership with a local temple and for the Urushi utensils they use, he wants to create products akin to the bowls and cups made 400 years ago, for his products to also be able to survive for 400 years.
Alana: Nishimura-sensei’s work also consists of fixing a lot of products, so that they are able to live a long life. If more people had a similar approach to creating things as these shokunin, the world would be in a significantly better state
Alana: Time exists as a social construct but one that governs our everyday lives. Our interaction with the two shokunin helped us to realize the importance of following along the pace of nature, that high efficiency does not equate to high productivity. We hope to take these lessons home with us and try to shift our perspective in our daily lives.
Alana: This is the end of our presentation. We are extremely grateful for all of the people who have made this experience possible. We have learnt so much from all of the shokunin and will treasure this experience for time to come. We wanted to take the time to give some extra thanks to Sachi san, without whom this experience would not have been possible; to Sumin san, who came on a lot of the experiences with us and always had great insights into the content and how to best explore the city of Kyoto; to Julia san, our wonderful translator, who also had amazing restaurant recommendations; and finally Kagaya sensei, for organizing this experience.