Daisetsu Suzuki Museum
In Kanazawa there is an architecture which bridges the Buddhist spirit of Japan to the world. It is Daisetsu Suzuki Museum.
The designer of this museum is Yoshio Taniguchi, who is a famous Japanese designer, and one of his works is the new museum of MoMA in New York. He was born in Kanazawa and learned architectural design in Harvard Graduate University. He has sensitivity which was brewed in Kanazawa, which includes the air of samurai, artistic craft work, good food, Buddhism and eastern philosophy, and western rationality learned in New York.
Then Daisetsu Suzuki Museum, which was inspired by Zen Philosophy of Daisetsu Suzuki, was built by the geometric architectural method. The design is simple with only straight lines and planes by concrete, iron and stones, but implies the essences of historical Japanese architecture. It may be that Daisuke Suzuki Museum is the indicator of the relativity and the continuity between the two senses of beauty of western people and Japanese people. And then, the concept of this architecture is similar to Katsura Imperial Villa. You will be able to feel the position of your sense of beauty as leaning to the western-side or to the Japanese-side.
The entrance is small like an old Japanese tearoom. The long straight corridor is deeply dark like an old house in Kyoto, a “machiya”. The rounding corridor is similar to the rounding corridor of a Zen temple. The beautiful water pool is the transformation from a Zen garden, a stone garden like the famous stone garden of Ryoan-ji Temple. And the small pondering room is the simplification of the discipline room for “zazen” in a zen temple.
The place for pondering by yourself
The water pool garden is the mirror reproducing this building, trees and the sky outside this building. However, the true purpose of this water pool is the mirror for filming your own inside.
From the time you enter this building, you will be closed off from the outside world and will step inside yourself walking from the small entrance to the end of the deeply dark straight corridor. On going out of the building and looking at the water pool, you may feel pleasure being in touch with the beauty of the design of this building. You shall be relaxed in walking along the corridor around the water pool. Just then, when a quiet ripple breaks the beautiful surface of the water pool, you should sense that this little mutation whispers to you to think of your own self. Finally, you should think of your own self in the pondering room.
The big Zen philosopher who was the bridge to western people
Daisetsu Suzuki, who was born in Kanazawa in 1870, was a renowned Zen philosopher. His works have influenced western people, especially Americans in the time after world war II, it is not exaggerated to say that his works triggered the Zen boom. Steve Jobs who was the founder of Apple learned Zen thoughts from a disciple of Daisetsu, and he was strongly influenced by Zen before beginning his computer business. Unless he knew Zen thoughts there might not have been an iPhone.
Daisetsu said about how to translate Zen thoughts in English. “Every person for achieving the quintessence of Zen has to get wisdom by knowledge and wisdom by experiencing practice. My works support the Zen knowledge, but the intact knowledge which was accumulated for the long history in Japan isn’t acceptable to western people who don’t grow up in the Japanese circumstances. At last, I and Japanese people have to think up how to teach western people as easy as possible even if it makes us lose the good points. Then, we will always open our minds and have to prepare to take cultures and emotions in other countries.”
This is an extreme lesson for people, of course me too, who convey the Japanese culture or the civilization in Japan to people in other countries, I think.
What is Zen?
Daisetsu said about Zen in his works.
“The quintessence of Zen is to experience the enlightenment of Buddha, “bodhi” in the old Indian language, “satori” in Japanese. Satori is the freedom from the bonds of life and death, the transcendental wisdom which raises all your intelligence which is deeply lying in your inside, and it is impossible to achieve the level of satori without getting both wisdom by knowledge and wisdom by experiencing practice.
The method of Zen is direct and done by yourself. Now, this is a question; “what am I?” If you ask your master, the master will ask you as well; “what are you?” To question consecutively is how to get wisdom by knowledge, and the Zen meditation, zazen, is how to get wisdom by experiencing practice.”
Nowadays, we can experience zazen in any Zen temple. However it is not easy to learn Zen knowledge. For present Japanese people who don’t inherit the accumulated knowledge of Zen the works of Daisetsu are good textbooks. And before reading those books visiting this museum is the easiest path to sense Zen.
The designer of this museum is Yoshio Taniguchi, who is a famous Japanese designer, and one of his works is the new museum of MoMA in New York. He was born in Kanazawa and learned architectural design in Harvard Graduate University. He has sensitivity which was brewed in Kanazawa, which includes the air of samurai, artistic craft work, good food, Buddhism and eastern philosophy, and western rationality learned in New York.
Then Daisetsu Suzuki Museum, which was inspired by Zen Philosophy of Daisetsu Suzuki, was built by the geometric architectural method. The design is simple with only straight lines and planes by concrete, iron and stones, but implies the essences of historical Japanese architecture. It may be that Daisuke Suzuki Museum is the indicator of the relativity and the continuity between the two senses of beauty of western people and Japanese people. And then, the concept of this architecture is similar to Katsura Imperial Villa. You will be able to feel the position of your sense of beauty as leaning to the western-side or to the Japanese-side.
The entrance is small like an old Japanese tearoom. The long straight corridor is deeply dark like an old house in Kyoto, a “machiya”. The rounding corridor is similar to the rounding corridor of a Zen temple. The beautiful water pool is the transformation from a Zen garden, a stone garden like the famous stone garden of Ryoan-ji Temple. And the small pondering room is the simplification of the discipline room for “zazen” in a zen temple.
The place for pondering by yourself
The water pool garden is the mirror reproducing this building, trees and the sky outside this building. However, the true purpose of this water pool is the mirror for filming your own inside.
From the time you enter this building, you will be closed off from the outside world and will step inside yourself walking from the small entrance to the end of the deeply dark straight corridor. On going out of the building and looking at the water pool, you may feel pleasure being in touch with the beauty of the design of this building. You shall be relaxed in walking along the corridor around the water pool. Just then, when a quiet ripple breaks the beautiful surface of the water pool, you should sense that this little mutation whispers to you to think of your own self. Finally, you should think of your own self in the pondering room.
The big Zen philosopher who was the bridge to western people
Daisetsu said about how to translate Zen thoughts in English. “Every person for achieving the quintessence of Zen has to get wisdom by knowledge and wisdom by experiencing practice. My works support the Zen knowledge, but the intact knowledge which was accumulated for the long history in Japan isn’t acceptable to western people who don’t grow up in the Japanese circumstances. At last, I and Japanese people have to think up how to teach western people as easy as possible even if it makes us lose the good points. Then, we will always open our minds and have to prepare to take cultures and emotions in other countries.”
This is an extreme lesson for people, of course me too, who convey the Japanese culture or the civilization in Japan to people in other countries, I think.
What is Zen?
Daisetsu said about Zen in his works.
“The quintessence of Zen is to experience the enlightenment of Buddha, “bodhi” in the old Indian language, “satori” in Japanese. Satori is the freedom from the bonds of life and death, the transcendental wisdom which raises all your intelligence which is deeply lying in your inside, and it is impossible to achieve the level of satori without getting both wisdom by knowledge and wisdom by experiencing practice.
The method of Zen is direct and done by yourself. Now, this is a question; “what am I?” If you ask your master, the master will ask you as well; “what are you?” To question consecutively is how to get wisdom by knowledge, and the Zen meditation, zazen, is how to get wisdom by experiencing practice.”
Nowadays, we can experience zazen in any Zen temple. However it is not easy to learn Zen knowledge. For present Japanese people who don’t inherit the accumulated knowledge of Zen the works of Daisetsu are good textbooks. And before reading those books visiting this museum is the easiest path to sense Zen.
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