Redwood Burl Butsudan

Butsudan of this scale are intensely personal prayer and meditation altars for the owner. Because of that, I chose to post only shop photos since on-site photos would have been an intrusion. I wanted the "Zen" of the piece to appear as if it had been made from a single huge chunk of redwood burl. To achieve that I found some richly detailed but quiet redwood burl veneer to use for the body and interior of the piece and then had-carved the "live edge" of the bark cap. The mounting on the black-lacquered plinth adds to the sense of "altar". When the doors are opened with the tiny brass pulls at the bottom center, a halogen down-light automaticaly illuminates the back panel on which will hang a scroll that has a hand-scripted prayer or mantra given to the devotee by his master. The columns on either side comlete the sanctity of the space. When installed the Butsudan is attached to the wall at a comfortable height for sitting meditation and is directly above a low, long tonsu-like cabinet made with the same commission.