Contentment: Peaceful Cuisine が与えてくれる Next Moment (次への瞬間)
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This is my gratitude expression for Ryoya Takashima.
Contentment is the word that I choose to describe his creations and visual expressions. In my eyes, Ryoya is a visual artist who seeks mastery of skills that rewards him a contentment. A YouTube channel, Peaceful Cuisine offers hundreds of videos of him preparing a dish at a time. The primary characters of each video are the ingredients, cooking tools and utensils. Ryoya, the chef, appears as the hidden or secondary character. It is a motion picture with a mysterious character who measures and processes the ingredients and creates a beautiful dish. There is a certain level of expectations to how the story (cooking process) goes, yet his video always leaves rooms for the audience to pose with imaginations what comes next. Ryoya captures a sense of confidence and pride in each step of cooking. I wonder if his confidence leads to the contentment; thus, creates the energy of peace and mindfulness that the audience feels and experience while viewing.
Ryoya’s creations and expressions give me the sense of stillness
While other creations in the media, particularly YouTube are overloaded with noise that I have enough of just being in cyberspace. Advertisements, neon colored texts, and offensively loud music that mask the content of the products. What annoying me the most is that I can lose in the space and wonder, “should I focus on the content, the noise, or the narcissistic videographer whose intent is apparent just making a profit and fame?”
It may sound a bit too extreme to some people, but I see each of his creation as a Zen garden. In a Zen garden, carefully selected simple ingredients, such as rocks, trees, plants, and sands create a mysterious, yet a complete space that ultimately expresses a universe. Each element contributes nothing more or less to be a part of the whole. For instance, I can see the preciseness in the measurements of the ingredients and cooking process that Ryoya offers, yet he manages to leave a plenty of room for the audience to contemplate and wonder.
Ryoya’s creations and expressions give me the sense of stillness despite the fact that the video is a motion picture by definition. Arguably, that’s what makes his work attractive for so many who live their lives to meet and aligned with the external expectations, customs and norms whether consciously or unconsciously. Perhaps, we just need a space and moment to stay put. He has succeeded in providing such space. I am grateful for that.
Now, I see Ryoya’s potential is that he will offer another sacred space where his viewers can shift and transform their lives to meet and aligned with their internal expectations, authenticity, and self-love with full confidence, awareness, and consciousness.
With gratitude,
GE