On arrival I was confronted with the beauty of the forms and textures present in Kyoto, those made from nature, those man-made and those where man has influenced nature, for example the zen gardens, the temple walls and the palisades. The fragility and transience of both man and nature are also evident, with the continual replacing of the materials used to build the gardens and temples. They are dependant on man’s intervention, every time that it rains the gardens are carefully raked, a sign of the continual flux of existence. It is no surprise to find these themes in Butoh dancing and in Sumo...