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Further Exploration in
Japan

Landscape painting is actually
called “Mountains and Rivers
Painting” in China and Japan.
“Mountains and Rivers” are seen as
the two predominating elements of
the whole nature with deep and
rich philosophical meaning. And
Gary Snyder had been exploring
the philosophical perspective
towards the nonhuman throughout
the years of studying Chinese and
Japanese culture.

Gary Snyder further explore the
“Mountains and Rivers” when he
visited Japan. He mentioned his
evolving understanding of
“Mountains and Rivers” when he
was studying Zen in Kyoto in “The
Making of Mountains and Rivers
Without End.”

" I immediately entered the local hilly

forests, found the traits and shrines, and
paid my respects to the local kami. In my
small spare time, I read geology and
geomorphology. I came to see the yogic
implications of “mountains” and “rivers” as
the play between the tough spirit of willed
self-discipline and the generous and loving
spirit of concern for all beings: a dyad
presented in Buddhist iconography as the
wisdom-sword-wielding Manjushri,
embodying transcendent insight, and his
partner, Tãrã, the embodiment of
compassion, holding a lotus or a vase. I
could imagine this dyad as paralleled in the
dynamics of mountain uplift, subduction,
"
erosion, and the planetary water cycle.