Asama-yama, 3

<!--StartFragment-->

Her name is Keiko, his is Shin. He is the more sociable of the two. His profession is sumi-e, traditional ink brush painting, and in the sitting room of the Blue Berry, beside an underpowered fireplace, he shows you his portfolio. Mostly he paints rocks – impossibly jagged rocks, ornamental rocks, cliffs bristling with pine trees. It is hard to get a sense of their scale.

 

            Is it a brave pine

                      on a cliff edge or a rock

                                  sprouting a bo