Chinese ink of the Buddhist Monk Hotei looking at the fight of two roosters and calligraphy of the word “Bu” which means martial arts, done by Kawada-sensei.
This same drawing was made during the feudal period in Japan by the warrior Musashi Miyamoto (1585-1645). This samurai had never been beaten by other warriors. What is really fascinating about this man, apart from the fact that he was a true samurai, is that he also had plenty of other talents, for example, he excelled in calligraphy despite having never studied this art, he knew how to master it like a great master.
Another talent he possessed was sculpture, he carved a statue of Buddha, Bodhisattva, and other symbolic and spiritual statues. This great warrior also wrote a world-famous book, Go Rin no Shyo (Book of Five Rings), read by many Japanese warriors.
At the end of his life, he practically gave up his samurai life, and retired to a cave to meditate to understand the meaning of life. The word “Bu” in Japanese (武) is composed of two parts, an upper part which represents the weapon to attack, and a lower part which represents the foot.
The two together give us the idea to go forward to attack the opponent. But in the word “Bu” there is another inner meaning, that of looking for something that does not exist. It is this part that is important and that influences Kawada-sensei: The human being seeks something that does not exist or exists but in an insignificant way. We believe in its existence and for that reason we fight to realize this illusion. When one thinks, in all civilizations of the world, war has existed, it has always been very bloody and destructive. This illusion is like the shadow of the Man, the man is motivated to fight to obtain this “shadow”.
Kawada-sensei has done a lot of paintings and drawings to demonstrate this “shadow”. The search for this shadow leads to frustration, this frustration makes the man aggressive, sick, depressed. He begins to drink or take drugs to self-destruct and forget.