enso por Kazuaki Tanahashi

Kazuaki Tanahashi is an artist and writer trained in Japan and active in the United States as well as a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science. He has taught East Asian calligraphy at numerous international conferences of calligraphy and lettering arts. As a painter, he is the pioneer of the genre of "one stroke painting" as well as the creator of multicolor ensos (Zen circles). Zen Mountain Monastery in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York has hosted his brush workshops since 1986.

Ensō – zen circle, is a Japanese word meaning “circle” symbolizing absolute enlightenment, the wholeness of the spirit, the void. The way you paint the ensō, would be the way your life is at the moment.

Kanji written in the image “Keep yourself firmly centered inside here and nothing will be able to shatter you” with the kanji of “heart” inside the ensō.

The ensō, also called zen circle, is a symbol of teaching, reality, enlightenment, and a myriad of things in between. Seemingly perfect in its continuity, balance, and sense of completeness, and yet often irregular in execution. An ensō is both the most fundamentally simple and the most complex shape.

An ensō evokes power, dynamism, charm, humor, drama, and stillness.