墨絵 SUMI E, THE ARTISTIC YOGA THAT SAVES MY WEEKENDS

Sunday morning, 10:45AM. Yoyogi-Uehara. The rain has stopped. The atmosphere is still humid, and the roads are two shades of grey. On the street, all know this is only the intermission to the tsuyu performance, and umbrellas hang from people's arms.

There are few things, in my mind, that make not sleeping-in on a Sunday morning acceptable. My sumi-e rendez-vous is one of them. From the post title to here, most of you must have wondered what sumi-e is. Sumi-e (墨絵) is the art of ink wash painting, a type of East Asian traditional brush painting. It was first developed in China, and later expanded to Korea and Japan. Using various size brushes, likely made from natural materials, we paint using sumi (ink) on washi paper. The ink is "made" at the beginning of every lesson, from a stick of sumi, using water and a suzuri (inkstone).

Yes, I said "made". In sumi-e, it is more complicated than just sticking your brush in a ink bottle or rubbing it on an ink palette. "Making" the sumi is in fact one of the most important steps of the 3-hour lesson. Here is how it is done.

We also do way more than just bamboo. While it takes years of practice to master bamboo leaves, and everything else about sumi-e (as the sensei cleverly put it this weekend when he asked us how long it took him to paint a tea cup during a demonstration, "it took me 30 years"). Every week we learn a new technique with a new type of subject. Usually it's flowers/nature subjects, but these past two lessons have been about tea cups. It's a whole new interpretation of the place of objects in space and composition, that I have yet to master. Although sometimes, you think you're doing it wrong, and it's actually the right kind of wrong. Which is right. Since we vary according to seasons, some of the things I have done so far are sakura (cherry blossoms), ran (orchids), tsubaki (camellias), kiku (chrysanthemum), and tea cups more recently. Among other things of course. We also vary colors a lot (colors are not from sumi ink, but from pigmented ink). Sometimes the whole point is to make interesting color palettes in a composition, or to play on water quantity to create unique "gradation" patterns.

My sumi master is actually an Israeli that has been living in Japan for 31 years. He is a soba-lover and speaks Japanese like a Japanese. Every Sunday lesson is unique, not only because sumi is a very interesting discipline, but also because we chat and learn about cultural subtleties. I go there every other week, for 3 hours, and it's truly like an "artistic yoga", clearing of the mind type of moment. Sometimes I arrive tired, wishing I could have slept in and thinking about the long nap I am going to take after class, but as soon as I arrive, the tatami and sumi draw me into a new mode, and I gradually feel better. The tea break, with every time a different tea and a plate of various sweets, is always very appreciated, and by the end, I am always a little sad to put my sumi stick away in its tiny wooden box. While sometimes sumi-e can be extremely frustrating, the sensei is always so encouraging about the fact that it is not about the shape, or that a work is not done until you have added many components that can complete a unsatisfactory first brush stroke. Every stroke counts, and one too many can break the balance of your composition. It is a truly fascinating universe that I will be incredibly sad to fly away from.

For your information, I paint at Ilan Yanizky's studio, here is his website http://ilanyanizky.com/ if you want to see more! You can check out his work, it's truly beautiful.