When the classic Zen and the art of bowmanship (in Dutch Zen en de kunst van het boogschieten) went into reprint (again) I was asked to redesign it and illuminate it. That was an honour; I loved that book. It’s a book about the experiences of a German philosopher who taught philosophy at Tohoku Imperial University in Sendai, Japan who decides to study kyudo, Japanese bowmanship. In his introduction he explains that the book is not supposed to be a how-to-book, since he has no clue. Nor is it supposed to be a historic book about the origin of kyudo. It is just his personal journal about learning a sport which strives to perfection by endless repetition.
Of course ancient woodcut images of Japanese Samurai were out of the question, that would make it look like a historic book. Nor would modern pictures of Kyudo suffice; he studied kyudo from 1924 to 1929. Furthermore modern images of people practising bowmanship would give the book a how-to-feel. I decided to use illustration. One pose repeated over and over again. The part which took him four years to perfect: the drawing of the bow. It worked, I drew two more: the preparation for the drawing and the release for the title-page and the last page…
