Water divides and water creates.

Streams of running water always have an amazing capacity to cut through landscapes, whether these are forests, mountains, plains or fields, the water cuts and divides the areas. In this way it enables specific identity and partitioning for the separated environments.

Water also creates environments in its ability to bring fertility, nutrition and other basic survival elements to these areas. This enables rich and diverse micro-environments to flourish in its vicinity. These are integrally linked to the flow of the water and ultimately connect to the specific hinterlands.

In Japanese philosophy these elements of combined division and connection are grasped together in the term of Ma, describing a force, feeling or characteristic that is always present between two opposing elements. It symbolizes unification as a dynamic element, not able to exist on its own.