A device to dialogue with nothingness

When I read D.T. Suzuki's writings, I find myself confused about "nothingness," " life," and "I." However, after mulling them over for a while, it gradually becomes clear that he is talking about things I actually knew before I read those books. This architecture was designed to recall the great person who lived this ideology. The facility is divided into the exhibition space, learning space and contemplative space. Let me describe here the exterior of the building, where photography is allowed.

A white cubic building floats in the middle of a pond. The roof is thin and flat, with broadly extending eaves. The surface of the pond is not calm like that of a mirror; from time to time, with a sound, the water’s surface rises at one corner, creating ripples that slowly spread across the entire pond. These ripples, created intermittently, like traditional shishiodoshi devices such as clattering pivoting sozu bamboo fountains, in fact seem to create rhythms of stillness. The shadows of the architecture and of the surrounding trees sway continuously on the surface of the water.

The white architecture is cube-like but somehow planar, giving the impression of a square, but with no indication of depth, despite housing an area for contemplation within. And yet it is in no way monotonous. As one wanders around the museum and looks at this space from various angles, one begins to realize that it has a variety of expressions. It is plain, straightforward, and non-directional, but if you try to capture it, it will respond to you with expressions of its own.

Ever since the Meiji era (1868-1912), we Japanese have been diligent in our efforts to import a great deal of knowledge from the West. At one time, it seemed that be it technology, philosophy, mathematics, or science, thought based on Western-oriented rationality could provide answers to any and all questions and challenges faced by the world and society. However, D.T. Suzuki, even under these circumstances, unwaveringly continued to advocate to Western society the Eastern way of thinking, as well as of perceiving life and the universe. And his way of thinking engendered both great empathy and support in Western society.

I myself think about things through the practice of design, but when I read D.T. Suzuki's books, strangely enough, I feel as if I’m being assured anew about what I have palpably and intuitively thought is true. Today, when the world is about to be changed by artificial intelligence, a technology that is the culmination of knowledge created by analytical thinking, it seems appropriate to reflect on Eastern thinking once again. I believe that not only those of us hailing from Asia are of this mind.

The museum’s architect is Yoshio Taniguchi. Designing architecture that embodies "nothingness" or "Zen" seems quite difficult, yet this structure, built in 2011, stands naturally as if it had been there from the beginning. I visited there in late autumn, when the falling leaves were performing their charming dance, but as the result of assiduous daily cleaning, the pond and walkways looked as fresh and spotless as if they had been created only yesterday. Inspired by this atmosphere, I completed my photography and videography in the blink of an eye.

2022.12.5

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3-4-20 Honda-machi, Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture