Kensho 2513

UV print of digital photograph on aluminum leaf on paper

Kojun is an self-taught multimédia American artist born in 1977 based in Tokyo, Japan since 1999. Kojun project started in 2010 explores the experiences of beauty glimpsed in everyday life. The artist name Kojun is written using characters conveying the idea of illuminating & enriching the soul. Realized in a variety of media, the pieces created by Kojun are meant to serve as “tools for the heart”, objects for contemplation as markers on the path to Illumination.

Kensho Scrolls:

“Kensho” is a Zen phrase referring to experiences of seeing the true nature of things, the path to achieving enlightenment facilitated by meditation. In the Soto school of Zen, meditation is performed facing a wall. This is why these works show their subjects against walls or wall-like expanses. One interpretation of the pieces in this series is as a metaphor for ourselves as living beings engaging “the wall” to achieve illumination. The work in this series is realized as scrolls. This is a time-honored way of presenting images in Japan, where artwork traditionally is not left out indefinitely, but selected for contemplation for its resonance with a specific occasion, then put away. They are created in diverse materials including Japanese washi paper and gold, silver and other metallic leaf papers, expressing the different dimensions of our experiences of the beautiful moments in our lives. Each image is created in a given size and material only once, making it a unique piece resonating with the idea of ichigo-ichie, “one time, one meeting” celebrating the uniqueness of each moment, embodied with particular clarity in the aesthetics of the Way of Tea.