ABOUT SBNR JAPAN
Listen to nature. Encounter art.
Explore your connection with the world through your own senses.
At the heart of SBNR JAPAN is a wish to heighten our sensitivity and awaken the senses that still lie dormant within us.
We create journeys that bring you closer, through your own experience rather than knowledge alone, to Japan’s tradition of prayer and its sensibility of finding the sacred in rocks, forests and water.
Why did Kūkai and other figures of the past establish places of prayer and learning here? What did they hope visitors would take home? It is difficult to take these questions to heart through a brief visit or an account of history alone. This is what we have come to feel.
Feel&Sense’s artistic world, which explores the connection between the cosmos and life, resonated deeply with Kūkai’s thought.
Through screenings and exhibitions in Koyasan and Kumano, we became convinced that these works could serve as a doorway to the essence of both sacred places, even within the limited time of a journey.
During an exhibition in the Okuden of Kongōbu-ji in Koyasan, contemplating the Banryūtei garden, we felt a connection between ourselves, the trees, the water and all things.
“It was a garden to connect with, not simply to look at.”
Carrying that feeling, we walk through Koyasan and on into Kumano’s forests, rivers and ancient paths. With each encounter with the landscape, our inner awareness deepens. We cherish this journey as a path towards SATORI.
That is why we welcome small groups here. We want to share directly with each person what Feel&Sense has come to understand through its work and lived experience.
SBNR JAPAN was born from that wish.
Carry the insights born here into everyday life, and into your own sense of ikigai. From this place, a journey that continues long after you leave.
Settle into film, sound and meditation in a temple hall at Koyasan. In Kumano, walk through forests, beside rivers and along old paths, listening to the stories of the land. Discover these two sacred places through your own senses.
Experiences are combined around your interests, the length of your stay and your walking pace. In a small group, take time to notice what matters to you.
SBNR stands for Spiritual But Not Religious: valuing inner richness and what matters to you, without necessarily belonging to a particular religion.
Religions have offered ways of being and living. For us, an awareness of life lies at the heart of that search.
Our journey makes space, beyond religious boundaries, to sense a connection between your own life and the greater cosmos of life itself. Film, resonance and time in nature offer ways to explore that connection.
An interest in Japanese culture. Curiosity about nature or art. A wish to pause. SBNR JAPAN welcomes the different starting points each person brings.
Sacred mountains and forests, places that carry generations of prayer. Through landscapes and art, we encounter the spiritual sensibilities living within them.
Film, sound, space and dialogue. We make room to experience what arises within, without hurrying to put it into words.
Begin with a place you would like to visit or an experience that interests you. Share your preferred timing and group size, and we will explore a suitable program together.
Feel& Sense, a general incorporated association in Japan, designs and provides SBNR JAPAN’s journeys and experiences. Film, meditation, sound and encounters with nature in Koyasan and Kumano are brought together around your wishes.