RAKU CHA RYU

Let's all rejoice for the very first surviving chawan is out of the kiln...many died in the way Pascal in two minds Pascal once wrote that there was two kind of minds : the intuitive and the geometrical. No mind is purely one or the other without being totally wrong but each has its preference. The geometrical mind knows how to formulate great principles and categories that are difficult to apply. « Thou shall never lie » says the geometrical mind, and it does so with an almost laughable   mathematic rigor. Such kind of mind is not wrong in the way it uses reason but its principles are not adapted to society. Meanwhile, the intuitive mind see the principles that fits each situation but are unable to formulate or even understand great principles that are not in their society.   Long story short : one think but does not see, one sees but does not think. To think or to see, you choose ! Yet, some situations require a certain mind and not the ...

The new born mountain On a dark glaze screen,  a moss of white rock has invaded the tea bowl.  The mountain is getting back what is rightfully hers. Extracting itself from the shadows, she is still fizzling.  Her shape is unclear and diluted like a cloud. She barely outcrop. Crimson gleams shimmer under the surface,  where the earth has yet to be opened. It is a great privilege to hold a mountain in her youth and to drink from her bosom  the first sprouts of tea. Black Oribe chawan by Sasaki Kyoshitsu II

Or why is it so hard to write anything non-polemical about Tea ? « Any miso soup left ? » —Kobori Enshu (probably.) (Quote also more arguably attributed to Hideyoshi Toyotomi) The subject of the tea ceremony and its history is so sensitive among practitioners today that to write a consensual introduction to the tea ceremony is a very difficult task. It is partly due to the fact that contradictory information is common.  Certainly, most people agree very vaguely on the chronology and the basics of Tea. But everything regarding the spirit with which it must be practiced and the interpretations to give to the countless legends and tales that go with it is the subject of great debate. Anyway, that is why I will only stick to the few things that I have understood from my various readings and conversations in the hope that it will be interesting to my readers. I have no pretension to present here the one and unique truth about what tea is or...

A ceramic meditation A Chôjiro style tea bowl from Shôraku workshop. Nothing is more still that burnt clay.   But the light keeps dancing on ceramics with an astonishing refinement. And very often, the most imperfect and simple pieces are the most playful with their environnement. Sometimes, I think that this specific relationship with environnement is one of the roots of the wabi-sabi aesthetic : it creates what I call a welcoming nature . Arts and their nature Frame itself separates the art from our world Most of the western (but also eastern) arts exhibit a strong human presence. The art is somehow remarkable , a human intention separates it from anything that could be called ‘natural’. The vivid colors, the geometrical lines, any pattern or drawing that could be described as more or less realist — which, in fine , means that it creates its own reality — all of these are different ways to distinguish the « human » world made by art from the «...

Newsletter #3 Are we learning to climb Mt. Fuji from top to bottom ? Skill without knowledge « All the wisdom in the world will not make us wise ». During my last trip to Japan, I wondered about the reasons that made me reluctant to start a philosophy Ph.D. This question had bothered me for more than a year at that point. This maxim I thought of was my answer : philosophy turned out to be a disappointing way to become wise. To be wise cannot be achieved by the accumulation of knowledge on what is the good life or our society. Spinoza once said that one can bend his will through knowledge but it might not work with me and many others I know. To be wise, one has to « desire » it… but there is no knowledge that can push us until we actually act wisely. I understood it in quite an odd way recently at the workshop of Sasaki. When I started this new internship, I had already gathered quite a few informations about the techniques required to make a nice t...