Buddhist teaching, as expressed through Japan, has formed a large part of my world view. I have written here about growing up under the influence of Tassajara Zen Center in Carmel Valley, CA. That's half true, as that special place served as a strong focal point in my teenage years. The other, earlier part is that I grew up on our family's ranch (my mother's side) in the house of my inspired uncle. Click on either photo above for a slideshow.
While in the Navy, my uncle was stationed in Japan and fell in love with the architecture and culture. This was a radical thing for a farm kid in CA., but he returned with a desire to collect and build an authentic Japanese house. Through the 50's and 60's he would put ads in local newspapers asking for free redwood and douglas fir lumber. Trucks would miraculously show up and he would pay someone to de-nail and stack the wood. I remember the numerous barns on our 1000 acre home ranch stacked and stickered to the rafters with first growth, beams and huge old, weathered railroad trestle timbers. The wood sat there for years, waiting till he could afford to begin imagining his own home.
Fast forward 50 years and my soft spoken, very private uncle is now one of the premier collectors of asian art in America. Recently, 2000 pieces of the collection toured Japan for two years. His house is now finished and the Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture is across the formal garden amidst the groves of walnut trees that we still grow. The Center serves as an educational facility for world students to come, stay and study. Respecting his privacy, I can only show you some pics of the exterior I took last winter.
I grew up around his large library of art and architecture books so today, in my own small way, I try to practice respecting that which has come before and that which is before me now. Whether it be in the realm of wood, art, music or community... these are challenging places to practice the difficult craft of being prescent. This is a slippery task. I can't express this as well as Paul Driscoe (a Tassajara monk) who just came out with a new book, Zen Architecture, on his building projects such as Larry Ellison's (Oracle Corp.) amazing, pristine japanese compound in Woodside, CA. Many of my friends have worked on the house which is featured here. We should all be so blessed and talented to have a palette like this to play with.
I write this to remind myself to get back to the task at hand and to not forget the chickadees that are feeding on the crumbs of my sandwich on this lovely late winter day.
