Know Your Materials

Koichi Ebizuka from 'A Primal Spirit':

''Over the past few years I have become increasingly aware of how great the differences
are between various types of wood. Most Japanese artists working today don't think about why they are using a particular material. Without attempting any dialogue with
the material, they use it because its available. I feel that its important to think about and understand the history of a material, how one was taught about it and how one uses it. It is only at this point that artists can have a true encounter with there materials. I can only use a material when I have stripped away the various levels of meaning and found its original form''