Iwasaki Tsuneo

When he retired from a career as a research biologist, Iwasaki Tsuneo (1917-2002) created an artistic genre to express the relationship between science and Buddhism. Iwasaki’s amazing works meld insights from his scientific expertise with a Buddhist tradition of contemplative calligraphy.

I mounted the two pieces shown here for Professor Paula Arai, who has written a book called Painting Enlightenment on Iwasaki’s work. He gave these two works (probably studies for later pieces) to Prof. Arai during the time she was interviewing him.

the Heart Sutra inscribed in gold on the “sword that cuts through ignorance”