Zen is a way of perceiving
without using words

Humans are thinking animals.
We know the world and
understand ourselves by thinking.

We are able to make sense of
these thoughts through words.
Modern society is
built and conceptualized around words.

However, our worldview and sense of self is
conveniently divided by
linguistic ways of thinking.

Sometimes, the limitations imposed by words
can lead to us feeling a sense of disorder.

Zen is the practice of abandoning this verbally
based thinking and understanding.

In zazen, one learns
how to discard words and
experience the world and
oneself as they really are.

―― Zenryu Kawakami,
abbot of Shunkoin Temple in Myoshinji

―― Beauty is felt when things are realized
like ideals are realized, which means
for things to display their original nature.
Just as flowers are most beautiful
when they manifest their original nature,
humans attain the pinnacle of beauty
when they express their original nature.
In this regard the good is beauty.

From “An Inquiry into the Good”
written by Kitaro Nishida

Made with appreciation,
rather than skill

Pottery in Life Wisdom is not about skill,
but about goodness.

Clay can be good or bad,
depending on how it is handled.
But the clay does nothing.
You have control.

Through ceramics,
we reconnect with ourselves
in the present moment.

In this process,
we can find and give shape to
our own way of being.

“If someone asks me
what tradition means to me,
I tell them that it is something
that is entrusted to me,
entrusted to us.”

For example, Asahiyaki pottery is
created using locally sourced clay.
As artisans, we believe that
there is a kind of beauty
in the clay itself.

We dig the soil and refine it into clay,
then form and fire it.

Through repetition of these processes,
we learn through our body
how to handle the clay in a way
that is unique to Asahiyaki.

The land, the clay,
and the techniques that we use have
all been entrusted to us by our ancestors.
This is my work and my expression.

―― Hosai Matsubayashi,
the 16th generation of the Asahiyaki pottery

――In contrast to today's ever-evolving world of science,
many traditions are simply handed down
from generation to generation and
silently passed on to
our children and grandchildren.
Some people define tradition in this way,
but I think it is different.
The essence of tradition is, of course,
to carry on what has been handed down
from the ancestors,
but it is also to incorporate
one's own creativity into the tradition and
to attempt to do
what the previous generation could not do,
and then to pass it on.

Text by Mitoko Matsubayashi
from“Asahiyaki: Clay is Alive”