I came upon
this site reviewing the book
Drainspotting, about the Japanese using their manhole covers as a "canvas" to place artwork. These usually mundane and unnoticeable objects become magically beautiful adornments to the urban landscape. This is one of the things I love about Japanese culture: everything becomes a work of art, even the act of daily living. In this, I find the influence of Zen - where intense viewing and mindfulness reveals the shining beauty in the world about them. Thus, we can have something as mundane and obscure as making and serving tea -
cha no yu - become a work of art and opportunity for meditation and enlightenment. Although these covers don't rise to that level, they present an opportunity for the casual passerby to be surprised into a heightened level of awareness. I wish we could emulate them here in the states.
I came upon this site reviewing the book Drainspotting, about the Japanese using their manhole covers as a "canvas" to place artwork. These usually mundane and unnoticeable objects become magically beautiful adornments to the urban landscape. This is one of the things I love about Japanese culture: everything becomes a work of art, even the act of daily living. In this, I find the influence of Zen - where intense viewing and mindfulness reveals the shining beauty in the world about them. Thus, we can have something as mundane and obscure as making and serving tea - cha no yu - become a work of art and opportunity for meditation and enlightenment. Although these covers don't rise to that level, they present an opportunity for the casual passerby to be surprised into a heightened level of awareness. I wish we could emulate them here in the states.
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