Handling the pots I made at Asahiyaki. Photo by Taran Wilkhu

Feeling More x Musubi Academy

Gianfranco Chicco 17 Dec 2024

Musubi Academy, a platform dedicated to exploring Japanese wisdom and its relevance to contemporary life, is the brainchild of Laurens van Aarle. We bonded through our shared appreciation of Japanese culture, and when the website launched in April 2024, he asked me if I would like to contribute an essay based on my experience making ceramics at Asahiyaki, a renowned pottery in Uji, Japan.

Since meeting in Kyoto in 2023 we have had many long conversations, especially on what he wants to achieve with Musubi Academy. He said “[it] was born from my deep affinity with Japan and a belief that many of the wisdom pieces we crave, but have lost touch with in contemporary life, still sit at the very heart of many Japanese forms of spirituality, crafts and arts. These often create exquisitely beautiful and innovative forms to convey them, from Zen to the way of tea, from Shinto to aikido, from craft to contemporary design.”

Laurens’ career has been a balancing act between coaching, education and entrepreneurship. It will be exciting to see how these elements come together in 2025 when Musubi Academy launches its immersive programmes that “aim to uncover those insights and make them accessible for a global audience to inspire how they steward their lives and our planet.”

Why now? “Like you unpack and describe in your essay, many of us struggle to keep up and experience life with a profound sense of presence, connection and purpose. For all its other shortcomings and shadows, I feel Japan still has the richest treasure trove of insights, practices and inspiring people to help us do just that.”

One example Laurens offers is “the value and necessity of thinking long term”. During a conversation with Hosai Matsubayashi XVI from Asahiyaki, who was my host during my own making experience in Uji, Laurens was introduced to the concept of ‘un-son’ (雲孫). This term, meaning a descendant eight generations ahead, is the furthest word in the Japanese language for thinking of future generations. “Imagine a world where we all allow such a long perspective to inform how we act now,” Laurens reflected, highlighting the profound impact this concept could have on our decision-making and actions in the present.

I invite you to use the quieter days that lead to the new year to explore the rich archive of Musubi Academy and reflect on how the wisdom it contains could shape our future.

Here’s my essay, ‘Feeling More’:

Disconnected

In a culture obsessed with speed and growth at all costs, many of us are living from the neck up, disconnected from our bodies, other people and the natural world. Convenience and efficiency seem to have trumped meaning and feeling.

I often feel like I’m living in a binary state, behaving more like the digital devices that permeate every aspect of my life than the complex and multilayered human that I am. It’s as if the more capable our gadgets become and the higher the definition of our screens, the lower the resolution of our actual lives.

To fight back and stop living inside my head full-time, I embarked on a month-long research trip to Japan to learn how to feel more from the shokunin, craft masters. The trip was a continuation of my ongoing research into Japanese craftsmanship as a possible guide to live and work better.

After many years of visiting Japan, spending time with its artisans, and helping to promote their work abroad, I have come to believe that they are stewards of knowledge that can help us all, not just craftspeople, lead more fulfilling lives. This is largely because of the artisan’s need to maintain a balance between the thinking that happens in their mind and the thinking that happens through their body. There’s also an element of circularity involved.

Continue reading on Musubi Academy: musubi.academy/feeling-more