Yakushima meditation yoga tour

    I have been trained in the Japanese tea ceremony, which has been passed down through generations of my family. You can partake of this lovely traditional ceremony. I also have a simple teaching technique for "Sumi-e", Japanese ink painting.
   Both these ancient arts exemplify the beauty of historic Japanese culture. They are yours to experience with me.

 

price: 6000yen/person

 

History of Sumi-e

   The 2000 year-old art form of Japanese brush painting is spiritually rooted in Zen Buddhism. Sumi-e's earliest practitioners were highly disciplined monks trained in the art of concentration, clarity, and simplicity. These early Zen Masters dedicated themselves to the art form with spiritual intensity through long years of serious reflection and strict discipline. Respect for Sumi-e's demands shaped their aesthetic direction.

The monks adhered to a rigorous schedule of meditation in preparation for painting. Entering a deep contemplative state was at the core of the creative process: preparing the inkstone, grinding the sumi ink, loading the brush (fude), releasing the brush stroke on rice paper or silk scroll. Mastering the nuances of the black sumi ink was more difficult than painting with color and required consummate skill.

Throughout its long and venerable history, Sumi-e has been held in high esteem and became a powerful way to inculcate the values of Bushido, the Samurai Code of Conduct. For the swordsman, composure on the brink of battle had its artistic parallel in the calm and tranquility essential before the fearless release of a brush stroke. Embodying the honorable ancient warrior codes, Sumi-e was a metaphor for the ephemeral world of the courageous Samurai swordsman.

What is Sumi-e?

Sumi-e is a picture which is done by shading, contrasting and bluring with a black ink.
It called "Sui-boku-ga/水墨画" in Japan and China generally .

East-Asian arts Sumi-e/墨絵 and Sho/書 (calligraphy) have developed together and both use black ink.
Originally Sumi-e expressed everything including colours by only using black ink. There is an expression in Japanese "black ink has five colours".
This is related to Buddism and Zen, because these ideas consider colors as a worldy desires.
And this is a beauty of black ink Sumi-e and one of Sumie's charms. The other charm of sumie is sumie pictures painted with colours.

“Sumi-e” originated in China. It has already existed in the Tang period (around 8th centuries).
It was introduced into Japan with Zen in the Kamakura Era (13th centuries). Sumi-e quickly became popular and a Japanese style Sumi-e was born which was suitable for its wet ground climate in the Muromachi Era (14~16th centuries).
Around the early days of the Edo Era, Sumi-e style was further influenced by Tohaku Hasegawa/長谷川等伯 and Sotatsu Tawaraya/俵屋宗達 and other artists.