Music by Takehisa Kosugi

"A fine introduction to classic Japanese gardens and the concept of MA."

-- Scott MacDonald, Afterimage

The early sixteenth-century Japanese garden in the Zen temple of Ryoan-ji, in Kyoto, is considered a masterpiece of the karesansui or "dry landscape" style... In this film, the viewer is invited to experience the garden as an embodiment of ma, a Japanese concept that conveys both time and space... The aesthetic of the film is the message, it has the quality of an experimental film, a conceptual film-an artwork in itself. Good balance of music/visuals/titles. If not as compelling for some viewers as for others, still rated as very effective. Makes one want to visit the actual garden and experience its spiritual energy.

-- Art on Screen, edited by Nadine Covert, New York

A Japanese concept of MA was not so familiar to me. The meaning of #MA# was not clear, yet we could use it in many situations. It was, indeed, a very mysterious word. Frankly to say, it was too Japanese to handle it. However, in the 1970s, I found an interest in the concept of MA, when I thought a lot on time in film. Because the time in film was considered as a duration of time rather than a clock time of N+1. It is a kind of duration that Henry Bergson called #DUREE#. This concept was a starting point in the film-making. An art film in which I made a filmic interpretation of as a theme with the classic garden of Ryoan-ji. In this production, I did not illustrate as an usual instructional art-film, but did a realization of experiencing through watching a film. (T.I.)

"Original, personal..to integrate a philosophical agenda with a visual one"

- Nadine Covert ed. Art On Screen, New York, 1991

'Architecture' Award of UNESCO International Festival of Film on Art, 1991