My days.

I spend my days breathing Kenninji incense, Nanzenji incense, Eiheiji incense....
My morning is the candle and the coffee and the offering of the incense to the Buddha. I dream of reading the Hannya Shingon and touch the handle of the Tebori I brought back from Yokohama.
I gaze at the eightyfive black and white photos from Kyoto that fill the wall next to the worn Tatami mats where I do my work and have my conversations. I remember the exact moment I captured every one of them as if it was one second ago. It is bittersweet, almost like a love that one has lost, but hopes to meet again.
Then I return to the Sumi and the skin and the needles, quite content and reassured. Things could be worse. A lot worse.

Autumn colors.

Shoki Goes to Afghanistan.

I finnished the first stretch on Jonas's Shoki last weekend. The other arm will portray a Tora (tiger), as Shoki's companion and aid in the correcting of Oni (demons). I made Shoki's skin red in order to show the viewer how strong this character is. Usually, in Irezumi and other Japanese traditional arts, his skin has normal color. However, I saw an old piece by master Horiyoshi III of Yokohama showing Shoki with red skin and really liked the idea. The red brings a lot to the mixture of black and grey that is the image of Shoki.

This thing with the red color should be used with caution, so do not go ahead and color every strongman and warrior red just because it tickles your fancy. The decision has to be made with the confidence of someone who has studied the matter wholeheartedly and over an extended period of time.

Jonas is a young man and soldier who is going to Afghanistan as part of the Swedish peacekeeping operation there. My views being what they are concerning young mean going of to war, made it all the more important to complete this piece before he leaves. In Afghanistan many demons need correcting. But who are the demons? The answer is as obvious as it is cloaked in mist. The Heart knows.

I hope Jonas returns safely and that his path is a good one.

Nothing is Black or White.

Not even this Blog. All that black weighed heavy upon the heart in November of the North.
This new Gray will shed a dull light on things.

Day Off.

Today is my day off Irezumi.
No, that's not entirely true. Even though I will not pierce any skin, there's poetry to be read, breaths to inhale and then let go, photographs to capture and family to experience. I will light a stick of Kenninji incense and stop fighting it so much. All my hours and minutes drifts towards this thing.
Today will be a slow day and tomorrow will stand almost at a still. Come monday, who can tell who Horimatsu is anymore.

Old Sakura.

It has been a hectic week. Only one more working day to go.
Sakura comes and goes, and so does the photographs from the old version of the blog apparently.

Just recieved two great books with poetry from great Zen calligrapher and poet Ryokan (1758-1831), and I'll soon begin sharing my favourites here. Before that comes work, cleaning, cooking, playing with the kids, washing the car, doing taxes, grocery shopping, redecorating the house, developing photos, sweeping the yard, talking to the neighbour and shaving my head. But then.......

“Do or do not... there is no try.”

Yoda (????-????)

Irezumi or Sucking Marrow.

Irezumi is a great vehicle for the heart that needs and desires it. If your interest is shallow the rewards are likewise. You will get back the exact amount that you put in, no more and no less, and you yourself already know and feel this.
This art is not for wearing. It's for being. You can be a part, you can be a piece, peripheral, or you can become Irezumi itself, mirroring centuries before you.
So what is there to wait for?
What is the delay?
Why do you stand there at the door, having difficulties entering and assuming your position?
You have to suck the marrow out of the Irezumi spine! Don't run around in circles and try to find reason you cannot have, because logic has nothing to do with it!
One minute of hesitation easily leads to a thousand years.

This is the same for Horishi and Client alike.

"The true person is
Not anyone in particular;
But like the deep blue color
Of the limitless sky,
It is everyone,

Everywhere in the world."

Dogen Zenji (1200-1253)

Try.

I sat down tonight with the purpose of writing about Irezumi, trying to explain or at least open the door so that you can glimpse what I see in there. I fumbled around with the words, but they seemed uneasy, not wanting to settle down and become.
Then I realized that it was an exercise in futility, this trying to share in words something that can only be experienced first hand.
The becoming of a single human being, transformed into color and shape during hours upon hours of hard labor and testing of the will to complete. I've read many explanations and theories regarding Irezumi, its character, its heart and mind, but they form at best only patterns of facts that in the end become meaningless without that personal experience.
"What is the meaning of this and that?".
If I tell you, would you understand? Really understand? The Ryu (dragon) should have three claws on each paw, I tell you, but how does it feel when that fact is a part of your body? Whenever I am with a client and great progress has been made on that persons Irezumi piece, we do not analyze or dress it up in words. It is what it is. Regardless. We nod, acknowledging and smiling. We'll see each other next week. Same time, same amount of time, using time to create time. It's without beginning or end. Before Irezumi there was everything else. Now Irezumi is everything else.

Go and have some tea,
as Josshu would have said