Carving the Divine

53MIN

Availability ended 5/16/2021 12am PDT
Buddhist Sculptors of Japan.
Carving the Divine offers a rare and intimate look into the life and artistic process of modern-day Busshi – practitioners of a 1400 year lineage of Buddhist woodcarving. Determined to pass his craft down to future generations, Master Koun Seki, the former apprentice of renowned Busshi, Kourin Saito, interviews a candidate applying to be his new apprentice. Quickly though, we discover this apprenticeship and the Busshi’s life to be far less glamorous, and much more austere, than we (or the Candidate) would’ve likely imagined.  Once Master Seki makes his selection, we’re taken on a trip through a guild culture unlike anything existing today in The West: From the growing pains of a novice apprentice, to the entire guild working together as one body to create breathtaking works of art, to the monkish practice of the famed, Grand Master Saito himself, alone on his quest to “leave nothing but great works behind.” 

Credits

Directed by Yujiro Seki 

Written by Yujiro Seki 

Produced by Yujiro Seki 

Cast Master Koun Seki
Kourin Saito