Written by Judith Schwartzstein, Director of Public Affairs, Sarah Lawrence College

Oct. 15, 2014: Sarah Lawrence College will be celebrating Zen Arts and Culture Week October 22 through 28 with an exhibition of calligraphy and ink paintings by Japanese Zen master Yakahashi Yuho, his first in the United States, conversations with the artist, and other cultural events celebrating the Buddhist tradition, including meditation, ikebana (flower arranging), and the Japanese tea ceremony.

Zen Arts and Culture Week is open to the public, but some events require reservations. For a full schedule and to register, please visit: zenweek.eventbrite.com.

Zen master Yakahashi Yuho has long been engaged in the practice of Zen painting and calligraphy, an avocation that eminent Zen monks throughout history have used to garner lay support and spread Buddhist teachings. Yakahashi Yuho is the abbot of Daian-zenji in Fukui City, a Zen temple founded in 1658 that is now designated by the Japanese government as an "important cultural property," and the abbot of Hosho-ji, a Zen temple located in Kanazawa.

Accompanying the artist to Sarah Lawrence from Japan is Noguchi Suichi, a master instructor of the "Way of Tea and Flowers." She is a licensed member of the Japan Association of the Art of Flower Arranging and has taught tea ceremony and flower arranging for more than thirty years.

Sarah Lawrence religion faculty member T. Griffith Faulk, who is organizing the weeklong event and will deliver a lecture on Zen arts and culture, is a leading scholar of Zen Buddhism. He holds the Frieda Wildy Riggs Chair in Religious Studies and is co-editor-in-chief of the Soto Zen Text Project, sponsored by the administrative headquarters of Soto Zen Buddhism in Tokyo.

Pictured here: Japanese Zen master Yakahashi Yuho.

Photo courtesy Judith Schwartzstein, Director of Public Affairs, Sarah Lawrence College