Carving the Divine

Free screening and Q&A with director Yujiro Seki

Thursday, February 19, 7pm

McGowan Room, 3rd floor Mary Kintz Bevevino Library

Free and open to the public of all ages. Light refreshments served.

In observance of the Japanese American Day of Remembrance, we are pleased to present a screening of a new documentary film by Yujiro Seki, Carving the Divine: Buddhist Sculptors of Japan. 

Carving the Divine: Buddhist Sculptors of Japan is a documentary film that offers a rare look into a 1400-year-old Buddhist woodcarving tradition and the practitioners struggling to preserve its legacy in a rapidly changing Japan. Determined to pass his craft down to future generations, Master Koun Seki, the former apprentice of renowned Busshi, Kourin Saito, interviews a candidate applying to be his new apprentice. Quickly though, we discover this apprenticeship and the Busshi’s life to be far less glamorous, and much more austere, than we (or the Candidate) would’ve likely imagined.

Once Master Seki makes his selection, we’re taken on a trip through a guild culture unlike anything existing today in The West: From the growing pains of a novice apprentice, to the entire guild working together as one body to create breathtaking works of art, to the monkish practice of the famed, Grand Master Saito himself, alone on his quest to “leave nothing but great works behind.”

What’s more, we’re granted unprecedented access into the secret rights of Shingon (True Word) Buddhism. And faced with the devastation of the Tōhoku Tsunami, we’re given profound insight into the Busshi’s significance within the Japanese psyche, and the nature of human perseverance through suffering.

Carving the Divine has become the official selection for 33 film festivals, showing in a total of 22 countries, and won awards at 13 festivals worldwide, such as winning the Best Director Award of a Foreign Language Documentary at World Cinema Milan and premiering at the famous Raindance Film Festival in London.

Runtime: 98 minutes, followed by online Q&A with Producer, Writer, and Director Yujiro Seki.

Support for this free program was provided in part by the Catherine and Daniel Flood Endowed Fund for the Humanities.