If one day you would want to get away from your fancy, feverish, frantic urban life, where would you go? Where would you hope to find a remote, quiet, and contemplative place? - Maybe in the mountains. For centuries, the mountains offered all the blessings a civilized human being was longing for. But Deiryu experienced something completely different. On this tea bowl he draws a different picture. He has written a so called “One Word Barrier” (Jap.: ichiji kan), a form of a Zen calligraphy that features one large character, either by itself or with and inscription in smaller size. The main character is mountain. “The mountains shout hip hip hooray” (yama wa yobu banzei no koe).

BachmannEckenstein | JapaneseArt
Rengetsu’s life slowed down at around the age of 75. The long years of travelling, moving, and drifting came to an end in the small village of Nishigamo. In 1865 on the invitation of her friend Wada Gozan she took residence in a humble hut on the temple grounds of Jinko-in, where Gozan was abbot. Since Jinko-in was a remote, quiet, and inspiring place the following years were by far Rengetu’s most productive... BachmannEckenstein | JapaneseArt

On August 24th, 2018 Artsy published this wonderful article by Casey Lesser. Thanks Casey for this.
"Some four or five centuries ago in Japan, a lavish technique emerged for repairing broken ceramics. Artisans began using lacquer and gold pigment to put shattered vessels back together. This tradition, known as kintsugi, meaning “golden seams” (or kintsukuroi, “golden repair”), is still going strong..." click here for full article