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With a strong interest in East Asian
cultures, Gary Snyder started to study
Chinese and prepared to translate Chinese
poetry. In 1953, he enrolled at the
University of California, Berkeley to study
Asian culture and languages. Immersed
himself in East Asia studies, he practised
Sumi painting – Ink and Wash Painting
under the tutelage of Chiura Obata.

" Obata had us grinding ink

seriously and working with an
array of brushes; we learned by
trying to match his erce, swift
strokes that made pine needles,
bamboo stalks, eucalyptus leaves
appear as if by magic on the
whiter paper.
"

This was a very critical moment in the
development of Gary Snyder’s “aesthetic
sensibility” and “understanding” the
spirit and mind of Chinese landscape
paintings.

Chiura Obata

" In museums and through

books I became aware of
how the energies of mist,
white water, rock
formations, air swirls - a
chaotic universe where
everything is in place - are
so much a part of the East
Asian painter’s world. In
one book I came upon a
reference to a hand scroll
(shou-chuan) called
Mountains and Rivers
Without End. The name
"
stuck in my mind.