SESSHU GARDENS

薈田純一写真展

横浜市民ギャラリー

B1 ギャラリー

2022年11月15日㈫～20日㈰

午前10時~午後6時

初日17時から　最終日 午後3時まで

横浜市西区宮崎町26番地1  TEL：045-315-2828

室町時代の画僧・雪舟は六点の国宝を含む五十点あまりの真筆を残しているが、造園においても仮山水の築造に新基軸を打ち出し豪放で閑雅な庭園を残している。しかしこれらには雪舟作庭のはっきりした史実が残るものはなく、信憑性があるのは十指に満たない。

　だが真偽のほどが定かでなくても、あるいは時が庭園の形を変えていたとしても、僕にとって庭がREAL（本物）であることよりLIVE（活きている）であることの方が重要だった。木々の息吹を吸い、観て、感じて、雪舟の空間に埋没できるからだ。

　雪舟の庭は難解だといわれる。彼の水墨画と同じようにその茫漠とした凄みに、なにを見出せばいいのか解らなくなる。それは室町時代の空間様式を共有していないことも理由の一つだろう。だが雪舟の庭は鑑賞者の「見当識」を問う庭だからではないのか。おまえは何処から来て、何処にいて、何処へ行こうとしているのかと。

 Sesshu, a Zen priest from medieval Muromachi Period was the most prominent Japanese master of ink and wash painting who left about 50 authentic painting including 6 National Treasures of Japan. But his achievement was not only in painting but created Zen Japanese gardens with an innovative ingenuity towards the method of “Karesansui” leading to high-minded and graceful gardens. However, these gardens do not have any written historical evidence of Sesshu being the creator, but only some oral tradition and the gardens that has practical authenticity would be less than ten.

 Even though these gardens lack historical evidence, and time may have changed the form of it, the most important thing for me was that these gardens where “Live”, rather than “Real”, so that I can enjoy the breath of trees, observe and feel the Space that Sesshu had created.

 It is said that Sesshu Gardens are difficult as his paintings are. It`s tremendous boundlessness that makes us hard to comprehend. It may be because we do not share the same spatial recognition as the people from Muromachi period, but I feel that Sesshu Gardens are puzzling because it inquires us our “Orientation”, where did you come from, what are you, and where are you going from here?

 The power of Sesshu Gardens which drags us into its garden-space is so strong that it is in a way frightening. This power is generated from the vectors of visual lines that spread transparently in the garden. If I were able to follow that power and directions by my camera, how would the photographs become? By giving up the idea of one perspective but to be multi-perspective, my thoughts had become compound and thus I was able to see the visions of Sesshu Gardens.