Category: Gainesville, Florida

Published in The Pharos (Spring 2006) © 2025 by Stephen Hsu

Published in The Pharos (Summer 2000) © 2024 by Stephen Hsu

The aesthetic principles that guide my carefully curated collection of beautiful objects from ancient Japan reflect my longstanding practice of the zen arts especially kyudo (Zen Archery) and iaido (Japanese Swordsmanship). I am a more recent novice student of chanoyu (Tea Ceremony) and ikebana (“Making flowers come alive”). Each practice requires specialized objects that are…

Hyotan (gourds): long used in Japan as containers for sake, water, and flowers; regarded as lucky charms; gourd shapes appear as architectural motifs, cartouches for woodblock prints, and signatures of print artists; multiple gourds on a battle standard (sennari hyotan) is attributed to the samurai warrior Toyotomi Hideyoshi who unified Japan in the late 16th…