The people who acted most boldly were often the most sensitive to color, form and texture.
History holds many such examples.
Here I place side by side two people who lived completely different lives. Oda Nobunaga, plus Mahatma Gandhi.
Oda Nobunaga ― a man who sought to rule the country, and collected famous tea utensils
Oda Nobunaga is known for collecting famous tea utensils.
He had those he subdued present him with renowned tea wares, or he bought them outright. This came to be called meibutsu-gari, the hunt for famous pieces, and Nobunaga kept many works of art close at hand, including paintings plus tea utensils brought over from China. Records of this appear in materials from Omotesenke Fushin-an plus Token World.
Nobunaga held tea gatherings that only retainers with distinguished service could attend, and gave tea utensils as rewards. This way of building the tea ceremony into politics is called ochanoyu goseido, governing through tea.
Why did Nobunaga place so much value on tea?
The tea ceremony could become a political tool because many people recognized the value of tea utensils. Something without value cannot serve as a reward.
Nobunaga himself also practiced tea as a lord devoted to refined taste. It is said that he lacked neither gold, silver nor rice. That he still sought works of art from China may not have been political calculation alone.
Looking at the shape plus color of a single tea bowl and judging that it has value. Perhaps Nobunaga made that eye one of his weapons.
Mahatma Gandhi ― the man who said there is music plus art in the spinning wheel
Mahatma Gandhi led a movement of nonviolence. Its symbol was the charkha, the spinning wheel for spinning thread by hand.
Gandhi spoke of the spinning wheel this way: there is music, art, economy and joy in the spinning wheel.
Of art, he also said: All true art must help the soul to realize its inner self.
For Gandhi, moving his hands to make cloth was a means of economic independence, and at the same time, perhaps, an act that settled the heart.
A deciding mind and a mind that senses beauty are not opposites
Nobunaga fought; Gandhi refused to fight. Their directions were exact opposites.
Even so, the two had something in common. Both had senses that responded clearly to the shape, color plus texture of things.
People who make big decisions are often seen as acting with their heads alone. In reality, many of them used what they took in through their eyes and hands as material for their judgment.
Sensing beauty is not the opposite of the power to act. Within the same person, the two are connected.
A painting beside those who act
Mermaid nao creates BUSINESS ART, order art for people involved in running a business.
I listen to your story, then turn what the business holds dear into color and form on a single painting.
Placing a painting to return to in the place where decisions pile up. That is something people who make decisions have done for a long time. Each piece is delivered framed.
[References]
Omotesenke Fushin-an (Japanese): Rikyu's tea ceremony plus its lineage: Rikyu with Nobunaga, Hideyoshi
Token World (Japanese): Oda Nobunaga's tea gatherings
O-CHA NET (Japanese): Nobunaga, Hideyoshi plus tea
note / Soyu (Japanese): What was ochanoyu goseido, created by Oda Nobunaga?
The Mahatma Gandhi Information Website: Epigrams from Gandhiji / Gandhi Quotes on Khadi
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