In the summer of 1972 Christopher Blasdel first came to Japan. He was from West Texas, "a landscape dominated by strip malls, sprawling gasoline stations and gigantic billboards advertising rattlesnake meat and a free 72-ounce steak dinner to anyone who could eat it in an hour."
Even on the bus trip from Haneda into the city he was struck by both similarities and differences. A big contrariety was the intensity of Japanese space. "Space in Texas was a nuisance to overcome with wider highways, bigger cars and faster travel. Tokyo space was an exclusive commodity where every square inch throbbed with vitality. Though jumbled, everything fitted perfectly together and followed a kind of pattern."
The elucidation of this pattern became the life work of the young Texan. During this process he discovered that it was aural as well as visual. "I began to realize the value of actively listening to sounds, rather than just hearing them," and he discovered and took to heart the famous Zen dictum: "Enlightenment through the single tone." This single tone possesses, he discovered, a great range of complex, interlocking timbres. "All we had to do was quiet ourselves and listen."