The Cliff’s Edge

At the edge of a low hill, a horse stands huddled as a black outline.

There is no special event here.

Only a single light dyes the hill, the sea, and the sky all at once.

For Byun Shi-Ji, this color was not paint for making a picture.

To lay down this color of dried grass was itself to call forth Jeju. Every time his brush touched the canvas, the sunlight and wind of that land came with it.

The horse at the cliff's edge and the sea below it breathe the same Fūdo within the same color.

This color does not cover the landscape.

It reveals the Fūdo.

This color is this very land.

Here is why he never left that one color throughout his life. To change the color was, for him, to abandon his place.