17 quotes
A masterpiece of a game can be ruined by insensitivity to the feelings of an adversary.
The Master of Go (1951)
Because you cannot see him, God is everywhere.
That play of black upon white, white upon black, has the intent and takes the form of creative art. It has in it a flow of the spirit and a harmony of music.
The Master of Go (1951)
The single flower contains more brightness than a hundred flowers.
Japan, the Beautiful and Myself (1969)
My own works have been described as works of emptiness, but it is not to be taken for the nihilism of the West. The spiritual foundation would seem to be quite different.
Japan, the Beautiful and Myself (1969)
The "secret" of their being up in the tree had continued for almost two years now.
In these two statements, perhaps, is the rigorous fate of art.
Japan, the Beautiful and Myself (1969)
In his last poem he offered nothing as a legacy. He but hoped that after his death nature would remain beautiful. That could be his bequest.
Japan, the Beautiful and Myself (1969)
There can be no world of the Buddha without the world of the devil. And the world of the devil is the world difficult of entry. It is not for the weak of heart.
Japan, the Beautiful and Myself (1969)
The winter moon becomes a companion, the heart of the priest, sunk in meditation upon religion and philosophy, there in the mountain hall, is engaged in a delicate interplay and exchange with the moon; and it is this of which the poet sings.
Japan, the Beautiful and Myself (1969)
The train came out of the long border tunnel — and there was the snow country. The night had turned white.
Snow Country (1948)
Maybe vagueness has been good for me. The word means two different things in Tokyo and Osaka, you know. In Tokyo it means stupidity, but in Osaka they talk about vagueness in a painting and in a game of Go.
The Master of Go (1951)
Wistaria sprays, as they trail in the breeze, suggest softness, gentleness, reticence. Disappearing and then appearing again in the early summer greenery, they have in them that feeling for the poignant beauty of things long characterized by the Japanese as mono no aware.
Japan, the Beautiful and Myself (1969)
Seeing the moon, he becomes the moon, the moon seen by him becomes him. He sinks into nature, becomes one with nature. The light of the "clear heart" of the priest, seated in the meditation hall in the darkness before the dawn, becomes for the dawn moon its own light.
Japan, the Beautiful and Myself (1969)
In my essay, "Eyes in their Last Extremity", I had to say: "How ever alienated one may be from the world, suicide is not a form of enlightenment. However admirable he may be, the man who commits suicide is far from the realm of the saint."
Japan, the Beautiful and Myself (1969)
If Buddhism is divided generally into the sects that believe in salvation by faith and those that believe in salvation by one's own efforts, then of course there must be such violent utterances in Zen, which insists upon salvation by one's own efforts.
Japan, the Beautiful and Myself (1969)
From the way of Go, the beauty of Japan and the Orient had fled. Everything had become science and regulation. The road to advancement in rank, which controlled the life of a player, had become a meticulous point system. One conducted the battle only to win, and there was no margin for remembering the dignity and the fragrance of Go as an art.
The Master of Go (1951)