"From the latter half of the fifteenth century, however, the focus of tastes began to shift from Chinese objects to native products--to ceramic pieces fired in kilns in the countryside of japan. Such rough and unpretentious everyday wares used by peasants as crocks for seed storage and water jars were felt to be richer in feeling than the exquisite Chinese pieces, and they came to be adopted as tea utensils." --Yasuhiko Murai, in: Essays on Japan from Japan (1987)


my shoes that won't turn water
crunch nuts underfoot
in the golden rays of morning

all is suffering
to one who discerns



"It was late at night, and Hogarth, who had lately acquired a passion for that Mathematics which touch upon Mysticism, was bent over Quaternions, and the quirks of √(—1) in an alcove..." --Shiel