A temple by a lake — the scene on Ki's home screen

Turn it face down to sit

No length, no goal

Sounds of Japan · Ukiyo-e · ZazenComing soon to iPhone

It won’t hold on to you
No streaks, no red badges, no nagging notifications. A day you rest is never held against you.
It won’t decide for you
Ki never sets how long to sit, a goal, or a promised benefit. Why you sit is yours.
Less is better
Time spent away from the screen, sitting, matters more than time spent looking at it.
It won’t judge
No scores, no rankings, no comparing with anyone. Your record is only a trail of where you have walked.
It takes nothing
No ads. Nothing tracked. Your record stays on this device.

Just Sit

Turn the screen over.
That is the beginning.

Place your phone face down and a bell rings three times to begin. Pick it up, and the sit ends there. No button to press, no time to set.

Face downLay the phone screen-down on a flat surface.
Three bellsA bell rings three times, and the sound of a place rises from silence. The screen goes dark.
Just sitNothing is shown. Nothing is counted against you, nothing compared.
Pick it upThat is the end. Only the time you sat stays, on the day’s sheet.

The day’s sheet

All that stays is the time you sat.

Afterwards the day’s ukiyo-e, the time you sat, the date and the season of Japan’s 72-season calendar become one sheet. No streak, no praise.

On a phone, simply lay it face down. On a computer, press the button: the screen goes dark and a bell rings three times. Press again, or pick the phone up, to end.

The Just Sit sheet: an ukiyo-e print with the time sat, 24′07″, and the date

Sounds of Japan

You sit somewhere in Japan.

Most of Ki’s sounds were recorded by us, on foot, across Japan: birds in a Sapporo shrine forest, a hot-spring field, rain on a shrine approach, waterfalls in a gorge, waves and wind by the sea. Each sit puts you inside the air of a place.

Birds in the shrine forest — Hokkaidō Jingū · Hokkaidō — Birds in the shrine forestHokkaidō Jingū · Hokkaidō

The hot-spring field — Kusatsu Onsen · Gunma — The hot-spring fieldKusatsu Onsen · Gunma

Rain on the west approach — Meiji Jingū · Tokyo — Rain on the west approachMeiji Jingū · Tokyo

Rain before the main hall — Meiji Jingū · Tokyo — Rain before the main hallMeiji Jingū · Tokyo

A gorge stream — Yōrō Gorge · Chiba — A gorge streamYōrō Gorge · Chiba

Mandai Falls — Yōrō Gorge · Chiba — Mandai FallsYōrō Gorge · Chiba

Fukasawa Falls — Yōrō Gorge · Chiba — Fukasawa FallsYōrō Gorge · Chiba

Water seeping from rock — Yōrō Gorge · Chiba — Water seeping from rockYōrō Gorge · Chiba

Waves on the beach — Isshiki Beach · Kanagawa — Waves on the beachIsshiki Beach · Kanagawa

Wind on the cape — Inamuragasaki · Kanagawa — Wind on the capeInamuragasaki · Kanagawa

Ten places — photo and sound from the same spot. Press ▶ and it rises gently from silence, one at a time.

Omikuji

Walk the approach, bow,
draw a slip.

Once a day you walk the path to the temple gate, set a coin down quietly and shake the box. What comes out is no fortune — just one ukiyo-e and one Zen phrase. The slip always reads 日日是好日: every day is a good day.

The approach in autumn — The approach — seasons follow Japan’s calendar

The day’s omikuji — One phrase, one print — the day’s ukiyo-e and Zen phrase

The Buddha hall at dusk — The Buddha hall — the coin is set down, never thrown

Today’s phrase · Zen in Ukiyo-e

鳥啼山更幽

A bird calls, and the mountain grows deeper still

After a bird calls, the mountain feels deeper still: true quiet does not shut sound out but holds it unshaken.

Is silence simply the absence of sound?

The Courtesan TakaoTsukioka Yoshitoshi, One Hundred Aspects of the MoonLibrary of Congress (original: National Diet Library)

One hundred and thirty-six prints by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, each paired with a Zen phrase. A reading in five steps: a question, the picture, the phrase, an untying — and then you sit.

The phrase on this page changes with the date.

楓蔦黄

Calendar and sky · Frost Descends

Now — Maples and ivy turn color

The sky is the sky where you are.

The temple on the home screen turns with Japan’s calendar, while its sky brightens and darkens with the sunrise and sunset where you are. The 72 seasons change every five days.

Home — the temple, the lake, today’s season

Daily paths

One step a day.

You don’t need a fixed hour. From three morning breaths to a season-long ango, every path moves only one step a day — and a day you rest is simply a day you rested.

100 Mornings

Morning · 30 seconds

Three breaths in the morning. The sun clears the ridge, and one of a hundred dots lights up.

Beginner’s Mind

7 days · 30 days

From posture to counting the breath, listening, and just sitting — waxing like the moon.

Twenty-One Nights

Night · 21 nights

From evening zazen straight into sleep, as a night over the lake slowly darkens.

Ango

One season

Sit morning and evening through a Zen monastery’s practice season. Four open each year.

Sit with a teaching

Eight themes — contentment, letting go, fear, anger, impermanence and more. Sit carrying one print and one phrase.

The temple year

New Year’s Eve bells, Bodhi Day, Nirvana Day, Higan, Obon and moon viewing — each open only on its days.

Sit by sound

Rain and streams, sea and lake, wind, forest and birds, insects, fire and hot springs: six rooms, forty-six places.

The Shikoku pilgrimage

Walk Shikoku
as you sit.

1,106 km

Every minute you sit carries you 300 metres along the real pilgrim road — from Temple 1, Ryōzen-ji, to Temple 88, Ōkubo-ji.

Nothing to press. When you sit, you walk.

Pilgrim paths and rivers © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) / Temples: Wikidata, Wikipedia / Coastline: MLIT National Land Numerical Information (processed) / Elevation: GSI elevation tiles (processed)

Records

Not counted — bound.

Each day you sat is bound into a book: the year’s ensō, the road walked, the omikuji ledger, the goshuin book. No scores, no rankings.

Records — an ensō for a cover, three books

Zen in Ukiyo-e — from a question to the sit

Who makes it

Made by hand, in Japan.

Recorded on site

We travel to each place and record sound and photographs at the same spot — and keep a record of where every sound was made.

Real ukiyo-e

The prints are public-domain originals, shown unaltered and credited to the institutions that hold them.

A Zen voice

Narration of Zen in Ukiyo-e by a priest of the Rinzai school is in preparation.

Temples, towns and museums: to talk about recording or featuring your work, write to support@ki-japan.app.