in-yō 陰陽 (Japanese for Yin Yang)
Yin is characterised as slow, cold, wet, and passive, and is associated with water, earth, femininity, shadows, and darkness. Yang, by contrast, is fast, hard, solid, focused, hot, and active, and is associated with fire, masculinity, and light.
Yin and yang elements come in pairs – the moon and the sun, passive and active, cold and hot – but they are not static or mutually exclusive terms. Whilst the world is composed of many different, sometimes opposing, forces, yin and yang can coexist and even complement each other. Sometimes, forces opposite in nature rely on one another to exist. The nature of yin and yang lies in their interactions – for example, the alternation between day and night, as there cannot be a shadow without light.
The balance of yin and yang is important. If yin is stronger, yang is weaker, and vice versa. Sometimes, one will contain elements of the other. This balance, and indeed tussle between the two, is often perceived to exist in everything around us.
Yin and yang elements come in pairs – the moon and the sun, passive and active, cold and hot – but they are not static or mutually exclusive terms. Whilst the world is composed of many different, sometimes opposing, forces, yin and yang can coexist and even complement each other. Sometimes, forces opposite in nature rely on one another to exist. The nature of yin and yang lies in their interactions – for example, the alternation between day and night, as there cannot be a shadow without light.
The balance of yin and yang is important. If yin is stronger, yang is weaker, and vice versa. Sometimes, one will contain elements of the other. This balance, and indeed tussle between the two, is often perceived to exist in everything around us.
In this series the Gardens and the Sumo wrestlers are these two elements in similar time frames, one juxtaposed to the other, one balancing the other.
