Prologue: The Hadron Collider

Kelly’s mum came to stay with us for a couple of days and I immediately put her to work helping me sew my Rakusu.

We began with a few printed pages of confusing and somewhat incomplete instructions, a few shaky YouTube instructional videos, sewing threads, needles and $12.70 worth of materials.

Oh, and the wooden ring given to me by my teacher.

I thought the whole project impenetrable. But step by step we broke it down into bite-sized tasks that between us we unravelled, examined, tested and then put into practice.

Converting all the measurements to metric. Cutting the patterns. Assembling and tacking and sewing and then unpicking our mistakes and re-sewing.

The Rakusu is a simple thing, built from hidden complexities. Traditionally it is completely hand sewn, but as I only had Kelly’s mum and her sewing acumen with me for a short time we machine sewed some parts and I hand sewed others (which I found very rewarding actually).

After quite some effort (pretty much 3 solid days) and the waxing enthusiasm of Kelly’s mum, we had changed a pile of black and white materials into a not too shabby Rakusu.

What was initially obscured and impenetrable had become simple and clear. The Rakusu was there all along just waiting for us to make it.

Indeed a beautiful thing.

Long seeking it through others,

I was far from reaching it.

Now I go by myself;

I meet it everywhere.

It is just I myself,

And I am not itself.

Understanding this way,

I can be as I am.

— TOZAN