To me, bunjin-ga has been a strange and incomprehensible one for a long time.
What is bunjin-ga? I cannot give it an exact answer yet, and that's why I have been drawing on and on until now.
How should I draw bunjin-ga? What should it look like?
Surely, it should not be bad, nor should it be just "good"
Then, how should I draw it?
I, the man who have never understood"bunjin-ga, am drawing it.
It's strange, isn't it? However I am sure"bunjin-ga" is just like that.
Like those who have been training themselves seeking after the principle of life, we bunjin-ga painters are drawing on and on in order to seek after the principle of"bunjin-ga" That's why I am drawing it.
I have been painting as a process in order to know myself deeply, and in order to know "bunjin-ga"

I'm seeking after something. At present, "something" is so vague that I can't catch its figure. However I really want to be close to it.
I was born in this world 70 years ago and have lived my life until now.
There was an eternal past before I appeared in this world and also there must be an eternal future after I have disappeared from this world.
I, however, might have been in that past or might be in that future. I may happen to exist in this world as one fraction of the whole myself.

I have lived, experienced and known things and I thought I understood those things, though actually I knew nothing. They were just knowledge.
What I am aware of now is that the existence of myself doesn't know why I am here in this world. Never do I know the truth.
That's why I am painting on and on "bunjin -ga"

Seekers after truth put themselves in ascetic practices in order to know themselves, which are free from lies and falsehood.
They try to ascertain themselves through themselves that have held their own experiences and knowledge in their lives. Still they know nothing.
So or nonetheless they try on and on practices.

One moment , however, I recognized "something".
It was when I was struggling against bunjin-ga.
"Something" that I experienced at that moment was "vivid spiritual rhythm" which must have been the essence for drawing bunjin-ga.
I recognized that my drawing was lacking this rhythm.
Until then, I had always tried to pay attention to drawing "good" pictures.
How could I say they were bunjin-ga?
It was extremely shocking experience to me.

Since I recognized this, I got myself into more terrible state than ever.
I knew that I need spiritual rhythm, but just thinking it didn't make me draw with it. Then my pictures became worse and worse.
The more I drew, the more emptiness I had, and the worse my picture became.

I asked myself "In Japan, who will pay attention to bunjin-ga?
It seems to have been disappeared from us all. But why am I trying to draw bunjin-ga?"
At the same time as I think of this world, everybody seems to avert his eyes from the most important thing, that is "pursuit of himself "
I was struggling to experience" the realization of my existence"
I ought to know myself more than anything else. Even though I might know very little about myself.

All of a sudden I realized that" there is no fact of my existence."
I was in the past.
I am in the present.
And I will be in the future.
But the present gets the past in one moment and gets the future in one moment.
I am in anywhere. In other words, I am in nowhere.
So where and what is my existence?
The more I realized this mysterious existence of myself , the calmer my spirit became, and it drove me draw pictures genuinely.
However in a meantime I found myself in the same situation as the beginning and struggle with drawing again.

It took 35years that my drawing received, not just an admiration but a hearty admiration.
It was on July 3, 2010, at Shinyo temple in Shanghai, China.
After painting Bunjin-ga on 2 Fusuma , the chief priest told me" I feel Zen mind" putting up his both thumbs.
It was the greatest pleasure that I had ever had.
You might think it funny, because I have refused to comment good or bad on any painting.
Please accept this contradiction.
As a human, I just want to express my feeling of pleasure when I was admired by the great priest.
It goes without saying that I don't draw in order to be admired.
I want to and must live carrying myself toward the goal of "self-realization".

"siki soku zeku" (all is vanity) " "ku soku zesiki"(all is relative) is the truth.
"Anything is nothing." equals " Nothing is anything.
" "I am in anywhere." equals" I am in nowhere.
" These ideas are always in my mind.
Is it the "time" that creates such a concept?
It's hard for me to give an answer to this and I just leave myself to the law of nature.
The important thing is that I realized the truth of this concept( all is vanity. All is relative) and I'm sure this is the basis of "vivid spiritual rhythm" and the character formation.
And that's why many intellectual people ,either Chinese or Japanese, have been drawing "Bunjin-ga" with the same purpose of living , which is self-relization.

Today, many people seem to be losing their will and purpose of life, seem not to ask themselves and seem to do their own way, to my great sadness.
Through bunjin-ga, I have tried to get myself back and carry myself toward my goal. Also I hope people will pay attention to bunjin-ga.

Then, who is a man of integrity?
He is a man who has found the truth of his own mind and can control it.
An old Japanese once said this.
" It is your mind that will confuse yourself.
It is your mind that will control yourself."
So those who would seek for the truth of their mind were called intellectual people, and the pictures they painted were called bunjin-ga.

Basically, bunjin-ga was landscape painting.
The landscape was utopia and must not be a real world.
You know, a long long time ago, there used to be a vast nature surrounding us.　 Even though, it was indispensable for people to think of utopia and express it in their paintings. Why was that? Because they were immaturity both in minds and experiences.
Like truth-seeker in religion, we bunjin-ga painters have been seeking after the truth in life And we compare life to pictures drawn in just black ink(sumi).
The lines drawn in ink cannot be erased nor redrawn.
I have to concentrate my whole spirit onto each line, because that line expresses myself in that very moment.
How can we control this non-elastic torment, black ink"sumi", which is just like ourselves?
So I still continue painting.

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