Looking for Zen in all the right places

Like many Westerners who find their way to SAORI weaving, I was attracted by the repeated references to Zen in descriptions of SAORI as well as the experimental, open-process approach to the weaving itself.  I'd followed Japanese literature and film since my days at university, gorging on Tanizaki, Kawabata, Mishima, and Kurosawa.  And I became proficient at a few Japanese textile techniques (sashiko embroidery, aizome (indigo) dyeing, along with patchwork quilting and boro).   But when I read about SAORI online and saw some amazing weaving and garments while I was looking for handicapped-accessible weaving equipment (I was partially-disabled at the time), I jumped!  I bought a light-weight shuttle and a copy of SAORI: Self-Discovery Through Free-Weaving from Jill Nickolene (SAORI Santa Cruz), and headed to my 4-harness Canadian Leclerc loom to give it a go. 

Freestyle weaving quickly became a passion which I shared with homeless weavers in a community studio I coordinated in Philadelphia (Arts Street Textile Studio: handmade with the homeless).   I bought an SX60 loom from Yukako Satone (Loop of the Loom), and shortly thereafter arranged for periods of advanced study with Mihoko Wakabayashi (SAORI Worcester).  In 2013, I obtained permission to start an approved SAORI teaching studio and joined the SAORI Global studio network.

There is no manual for how to create or advertise a SAORI studio, or how to explain SAORI in terms of Zen traditions.  My principal model was my own teacher and her SAORI studio.  I pored over MIhoko's website, and compared it to other studio websites when I started out; nearly all studios repeat some version of the explanation of the origin of "SAORI".  On my own website, it appears as: 

"SAORI" is a compound word with a double meaning: SAORI means both 'Misao's weaving' and 'weaving with individual dignity, from the joining of the Japanese word for weaving (ori) and either Misao Jo's name (Mi-sao) or the Zen word for 'individual dignity' (sa)".

Beyond this linguistic reference to Zen, Mihoko made only oblique reference to SAORI's Zen's spiritual roots.  Many SAORI studios, however, make explicit claims to Zen when advertising SAORI as "Zen weaving fro Japan", or offer Zen Weaving Days";  Loop of the Loom describes itself as as "weaving dojo".   As a Westerner unschooled in Zen practice and new SAORI guide, I was reluctant to make strong claims about a relationship between SAORI and Zen.  Until recently, when I had a few conversations with students that transformed my approach to SAORI philosophy.

I needed better answers to perceptive student questions about ideas like "weave without intention", and "look out through shining eyes".  After consulting my copy of Self-Innovation I started at the next best place: my own teacher's thoughts.  To my surprise, Mihoko's website blog included a post dedicated to "wabi-sabi" and Zen:

"I recall a SAORI kai (gathering) at loop of the loom studio in NYC that I attended several years ago. People had talked about Wabi-sabi as an element of SAORI weaving. I remembered that I was confused by how people understood Wabi-sabi because it didn’t sound the same as my understanding. Then I happened to watch this Japanese TV show called “Cool Japan” a week ago on Youtube. In this show several foreigners who were living in Japan discussed about different aspects of Japanese culture and this particular show focused on Wabi-sabi.  It was very interesting.  It made me think more deeply about Wabi-sabi, Japanese beauty. It’s true that it’s hard for a person to analyse its own culture because he/she feels that he/she gets it while he/she is living in it and he/she never has had time to define it with words. I felt exactly like that.

Mihoko's example of oribe pottery

Even my Japanese teacher could only tentatively approach the subject of wabi-sabi!  First she quoted Wikipedia: "Wabi-sabi represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete”. It is a concept derived from the Buddhist teaching of the three marks of existence , specifically impermanence , the other two being suffering and emptiness or absence of self-nature. [...] Characteristics of the wabi-sabi aesthetic include asymmetry, asperity (roughness or irregularity), simplicity, economy, austerity, modesty, intimacy, and appreciation of the ingenuous integrity of natural objects and processes."

And behold!  Mihoko declared:

"Naturally SAORI weaving fits in this category!  Misao Jo is clearly influenced by Zen Buddhism principle[s].  My weaving has still my ego in it in many levels. That’s why I keep pursuing my practice to remove that and keep trying to weave with Mu-shin (absence of self-nature).  Misao said SAORI is a weaving with Mushin."

And behold!  I had my own teacher's anecdotal confirmation of the Zen connection to SAORI, transmitting Misao Jo's own formulation of the matter.  I needed to understand Mushin.  After a couple of quick online searches, it was clear that there was plenty to learn about Zen before tackling mushin in detail.  So I returned to the source:  Self-Innovation.

Between a rock and a creative place

If you are reading this "beta" post, then you are a SAORI instructor, weaver, studio member or student acquainted with the general history of SAORI weaving and founder Misao Jo.  You have a copy of the SAORI "bible", SAORI: Self-Innovation Through Free Weaving (2012) or an earlier edition.  And you are familiar with the four basic SAORI principles:

• Consider the differences between people and machines
• Be bold and adventurous
• Look out through 'eyes that shine'
• Inspire and learn from everyone in the group

So you will understand my trepidation in starting a journey that takes SAORI itself as the subject of inquiry.  Much like the cloth we weave, this journey has no clear destination.  But then, much like the cloth we weave, it is undertaken with faith in the nature of creative travel.  This "faith" is one of the pillars of SAORI philosophy, a commitment Misao Jo expressed repeatedly in her reflective essays in Self-Innovation.  

And this faith wholly absorbed me as I sat behind Misao-san in a car a few months ago, en route to a hanami (cherry blossom viewing or festival) in Osaka prefecture.  I had learned about SAORI weaving in Philadelphia from the book, and studied in the U.S. with my Japanese sensei (Mihoko Wakabayashi, SAORI Worcester, MA); my trip to Japan in early spring, 2016 was my first opportunity to meet Misao Jo.  But there I was, sitting behind Misao-sensei as Kenzo Jo drove the car to the festival.  We passed countless flowering cherry trees along the highway, but my attention was most keenly focused on Misao-san, fragile and silent in the seat in front of me.  And as we traveled, I realized that I could also just see her face in the side view mirror (on the left, of course!), and it seemed as if she was watching me intently as I tried to capture the moment with my camera.

So I was poised both behind and facing our founder, between SAORI's rock and its creative source.  And I felt both a tremendous responsibility, and a tremendous challenge - the responsibility to honor and transmit the gift of SAORI philosophy and weaving, and the challenge to understand it as completely as possible, in spite of being an American weaver and SAORI instructor requiring translation for Japanese language and culture.

That was the first prompt for this "blog" experiment.  The second prompt was conversations with SAORI students about the meaning of "weaving without intention"in SAORI and the relation of "wabi sabi" to SAORI weaving.  I began a course of study in order to more effectively answer and guide these and other students.  Since I do not speak Japanese, I've had to rely on all available dictionaries, online translators, and translations. 

In my weaving world:  SAORI weaving is learned at a loom, in a SAORI studio, guided by an experienced and approved SAORI guide.  A copy of Self-Innovation is the starting point for serious thinking in addition to weaving.  SAORI is not taught virtually and there will be no technical weaving instruction here.  Rather, the plan is to share reflections and research, and to engender thoughtful conversations about the reach of SAORI philosophy and weaving.  These posts and the conversations in comments will be the fruit of that research.

The reflections shared here are entirely my own, the result of how I have understood and incorporated the teachings I've received - directly and indirectly - from so many patient and generous Japanese teachers and colleagues in the United States and Japan, and the countless SAORI weavers who have shared their thoughts and weaving through various electronic sources.   As a SAORI guide, I have to admit that the ideas shared here would never have been articulated but for the patience and generosity of the students and members of my studio, who both challenge and delight me with their perseverance and beautiful weaving, their penetrating questions, and their interest in exploring SAORI as an approach to creative process and way of life beyond weaving.

So find your copy of Self-Innovation (or it’s predecessor, SAORI: Self-Discovery through Free Weaving) and we’ll start together in the next post.