Nyogen Nowak & Ewa Hadydon

Nyogen Nowak & Ewa Hadydon
e-mail: zendustart@gmail.com

If you are interested in purchasing any of the paintings, please contact Katarzyna Weiss,
tel. +48 600 365-655
or e-mail to: lingwest@poznet.pl
In USA: Krzysztof Podejko,
tel. +1 (847) 255-3139
or e-mail to: kannon4@yahoo.com

Smaller sizes of Ewa and Nyogen's works are available from www.dzieckoPRL-u.pl - GALERIA SZTUKI

Daibai-ji, the temple of which I am the abbot, is located on Banzan Hill just to the west of Sendai Castle. It was built in 1650 by the Date family, the feudal lords of Sendai as a training temple of the Rinzai school of Zen.

In March 1993 during the first breeze of the coming spring, Nyogen-osho(*) and Ewa-daishi(**) climbed the stone steps of Daibai-ji and appeared at our zazen meeting. That was the first time that I met them. Both of them were painters. Nyogen was doing Zen paintings (zenga) and Ewa was doing esoteric paintings (mitsuga). Both of them had reached high levels in their art.

It has been said that "Zen is natural, simple, assymmetrical, free from wordliness, calm, austerly sublime, and subtly profound." But this is the impression of an outsider. If a Zen person wants to be self consciously aware of this essence, he or she is an imposter. One must have these qualities without being consciously aware of them.

In Zen, explanations or speeches are not necessary. You can experience the essence through zazen. The same can be said of zenga. Extraneous brush strokes are not only annoing, but also not in keeping with the essence of Zen. Zenga should be drawn from the Zen spirit.

Recently, Nyogen's brush work has been gettings sharper. His depictions, made with rapid brush strokes, of small animals as if frozen in time attracts me very much. I truly believe that he has a future as a Zen artist. If he continues to devote himself do Zen practice and painting, he will certain establish his name in zenga.

In Ewa's works, faces of Buddhas and Sanskrit letters (bonji) pervade each other in an infinite and mysterious world, reflecting in that way the perfect state of the Buddha's mind. She depicts each Buddha in detail, imbuing the drawing with her spirit and making the most of the fine characteristic of ink and bonji. As I stand in front of her works, I feel naturally inclined to join my palms together in reverence because of subtly profound atmosphere of esoteric Buddhism that emanates from her paintings.

At first sight the painting styles of Nyogen and Ewa seem to reflect two very different outlooks. In the Buddha's mind, however, they fuse into oneness.

I hope from the bottom of my heart that they will continue to devote themselves to zazen and to their art works in a fruitful manner.

Hoshi Yuun
The 26th Abbot of Daibai-ji Temple
Former Curator of the Sendai Historical Museum
30 October 1997, Daibai-ji, Sendai

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(*) osho sk. upadhyaya. Originally the title of a precept-master. In Zen tradition, one of the ranks of a Zen priest.
(**) daishi. In Zen tradition, a title used to refer to a lay woman who has received the Buddhist precepts.