CITY OF HUNGRY GHOSTS

There is a Japanese visual art in which the artist is forced to be spontaneous. He must paint on a thin stretched parchment with a special brush and black water paint in such a way that an unnatural or interrupted stroke will destroy the line or break through the parchment. Erasures or changes are im- possible. These artists must practice a par- ticular discipline, that of allowing the idea to express itself in communication with their hands in such a direct way that deliberation cannot interfere.

The resulting pictures lack the complex composition and textures of ordinary paint- ing, but it is said that those who see will find something captured that escapes explanation.

-excerpt from
"improvisations in jazz"
by gil evans