Zenzen's Story

I was lucky to meet and observe numerous (sometimes legendary) old and young craftsmen all over Japan. I was amazed by how they treated their craft, and devoted their whole life to it, like a life calling. They trained for years under a master, positioning themselves humbly and sacrificing everything for this craft. With my western mind, I could not get my head around having such patience and sacrificing so many years for learning a craft.

My journey started when I met Watanabe-san at his indigo dyeing studio in Tokushima. I got to experience Indigo dyeing for the first time, and saw my fabrics and bare hands slowly turn deep Japan blue. I was and I still am so moved every time by this beautiful blue color and its mysterious dyeing process. After this experience, my journey continued in Japan to other places, but I could not let go this beautiful blue color. I rang up Watanabe-san again to see if I could stay a month at his workplace to learn more about indigo, and luckily I was accepted. 

My first year living in Japan ended in Tokyo, where Zenzen ultimately was born. Zenzen was conceived due to my interest and having practiced zen numerous times at a traditional zen monastery in Japan. It is also one of the first Japanese words I learned, and can be playfully used to modify negative verbs (but recently also positive verbs), meaning totally (not) or (not) at all. Zenzen (全然) also consists the chinese character for nature (然) and whole (全), and being used positively and negatively, make it full circle with zen.