{"title":"Jyuei (Tree Shadow)","description":"\u003cp\u003eJyuei: the shadow a tree casts upon the ground.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;A shadow is not the tree itself. And yet, upon the earth, it faithfully records that this tree reached upward — toward the sky, toward the light. How far it spread its branches, which way it strove to grow. The shadow keeps the outline of that will, and nothing more.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;What I find myself thinking, as I carve, is that this tree never stopped reaching upward. Wounded, its trunk twisting, still it turned toward the light. That direction remains in the swell of the grain, different in every single piece, even now.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;A tree gathers its density over decades, over centuries, in an unforgiving place. Against a span of time like that, we have to bring something that measures up. Not erasing the grain and the knots as flaws, but carving so as to set them free. The time the earth laid down, and the precision we hold out in return — only when the two meet in the palm of a hand does the writing settle into place.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;We cannot create a shadow. Where there is light, and something standing in it, a shadow comes into being of its own accord. What we can do is find its form, carve it out with all the skill we have, and shape it into a pen that settles into your hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;Perhaps writing is not so different. The thoughts within you have no form yet. Only when they fall onto paper as words do they take on an outline at last. The shadow of a tree that reached for the light, and the shadow of the words you write. The two come to rest together, quietly, on your desk.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;We cannot see our own figure. Even so, the direction we reached toward remains behind us, as a shadow. If Jyuei can stay close to you in hours like those, I would be glad.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the place closest to your silence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[],"url":"https:\/\/tuduriya.jp\/en\/collections\/jyuei.oembed","provider":"Tuduriya","version":"1.0","type":"link"}