Home

This post is also available in: Français

Teaching

The School teaches the sumi-e painting method of the internationally recognized Master Beppe Mokuza (see a biography of teachers). Sumi-e is the traditional Japanese ink painting; the Japanese word “sumi” means black ink, and “e” means painting (see a presentation of sumi-e).

Audience

In the case of the professional curriculum

The School is open to everybody; it is particularly intended for people who wish to become sumi-e teachers, to those who seek to deepen their personal practice, to artists who desire to acquire new skills, in a 4 year long curriculum. It should be noted that there is no provision for validation of acquired experience, equivalence or certification of part of the skills.

In addition to the traditional outlets offered by the French Ministry of Education and the local civil service, teachers can also work as service providers or employees of cultural centers or local cultural associations, and/or as freelancers organizing evening classes and internships. These activities can be carried out in a variety of ways: as a self-employed contractor, as an association employee or service provider, as a cultural center employee, etc.
Artist-teachers can sell their original works and related products.

In the case of leisure practice, in particular the continuation of the “Encre Poétique” (Poetic Ink)

The school is open to everyone, including sumi-e beginners and people with no previous experience in the Visual Arts. Leisure classes are shared with professional classes. It is enriching to share experiences, the beginners will have a better understanding of their future skills by watching the students practicing, and the latter will be able to supervise the practice of the beginners as a teaching opportunity.

About People with Disabilities

The School strives to include all persons in its activities, in accordance with the French law of February 11, 2005 for “equal rights and opportunities, participation and citizenship of disabled persons”.

People with missing upper limbs or hands, severe motor and sensory deficits of the upper limbs, hands, torso and head cannot be admitted to the course, as well as people who are blind or have a severe visual deficit.
The sumi-e painting method requires a precise body posture, with the pelvis tilted forward, the shoulders clear and the back straight, ideally standing (to develop body awareness) in front of a high horizontal table, but it is possible to practice sitting down while preserving the essential elements of the posture.

Mental deficits should not affect the interpersonal relationship between teacher and student, which is the basis for the transmission of sumi-e practice.
It is possible to welcome people with learning and language deficits (because sumi-e teaching is practical and oral), and/or deficits that lead to difficulties in integrating in a group, lack of attention or coordination of movements. The practice of sumi-e can help these people to reduce the impact of these deficits.
A rest area is provided for people who are subject to great fatigue due to their disability.

Program

The teaching is given during seminars, which represent up to more than 200 hours a year (see the detailed program). The practice is based on a set of models designed specifically for progression over the duration of the curriculum. A cycle of theoretical courses allows approaching all the roots of sumi-e: historical, philosophical, cultural … as well as technical points.

Leisure time participants can register for a fraction of each seminar, either 1 to 10 half-days of their choice in Versailles, or the weekend, within the time frame of each seminar.

Individualizing

To take into account the remoteness of the trainees, school year 2023-2024 still favors long seminar formats, and to facilitate the integration of training into personal life, trainees can choose the workshop they attend among those offered. Training credits are allocated for each course attended, the end-of-year exam can be taken when the accumulated credits correspond to the set of required skills. The duration of training is therefore individualized.

As the program is common to all students, while everyone is at a very different point in his/her path, an individual support program is part of the curriculum, to support the effort of personal practice between two seminars (see the individual support program). 30 hours per year of follow-up are allocated to each student.

Despite the specificities described above, the seminars are open to everybody. As an unregistered student, it is possible to attend only some of the seminars (see the registration procedure).

Declaration of activity registered under number 11788438278 with the Ile-de-France regional prefect.

The International School of Sumi-e is a professional training organization that meets the quality criteria of the decree of June 30, 2015, and therefore can be referenced by funders of continuing professional training.

Logo Qualiopi
La certification qualité a été délivrée au titre de la catégorie d’action suivante:
ACTIONS DE FORMATION

The activity of the International School of Sumi-e is certified to be in compliance with:

  • the national reference system on the quality of actions contributing to the development of skills of the decrees: no 2019-565 of June 6, 2019 (articles 1 and 3) and no 2019-564 of June 6, 2019 on the quality of vocational training actions (article 1) ;
  • the order of June 6, 2019 on the audit procedures associated with the national reference system mentioned in Article D. 6316-1-1 of the Labor Code.

Schedule and Registration Details

This post is also available in: Français

The program is available on the page Schedule.

The registration details and the School price are available on the page Registration Details, and on every detailed page of seminars, which are accessed through the Schedule page.

Please leave your personal information on the Contact page, to ask any information or to register.

About us

This post is also available in: Français

Our Mission is to promote teaching and practicing traditional Japanese painting (sumi-e), according to the method of sumi-e Master Beppe Mokuza.

The School’s Indicators are presented at the bottom of the page.

Teachers of the School

Beppe-Mokuza

Beppe Mokuza

School Honorary President

Beppe Mokuza Signoritti is a Zen monk belonging to the tradition of Soto Zen Buddhism; he is a disciple of Zen Master Roland Yuno Rech. He is the founder and responsible of the Zen Dojo “Bodai Dojo” located in Alba, north Italy. For almost thirty years he has been dedicating himself to Sumi-e and the practice of Zen meditation, exhibiting his works, holding conferences and practical demonstrations throughout Europe. Since the beginning of his spiritual path, Beppe Mokuza combines the practice of Zen with Sumi-e.
To discover Beppe Mokuza:
http://sumi-e.co.uk

Alain Plaignaud

Alain Keigyo Plaignaud

School President

Alain Plaignaud has been practicing Zen meditation since 2007 and met Beppe Mokuza on this occasion in 2013. In 2017, he interrupts his engineering career to fully devote himself to the practice of sumi-e and Zen meditation. In 2023 he becomes a Zen monk.

Indicators of the School

The School’s activity proposes, on the one hand, a curriculum that aims at certification in 4 years, with a validation of the acquired knowledge at the end of each year, and on the other hand, specific training courses that are not part of a certification curriculum.
See the Home page for more details on the School’s activity.

Please note that the annual duration of the curriculum depends on the beneficiaries, who may not attend all the courses and therefore extend the calendar duration.
Beneficiaries who do not follow the curriculum follow the entire course in which they are registered, without interruption, i.e. 5 or 9 days depending on the course.

The School’s activity began at the start of the 2019 school year.

Data is updated annually, at the end of the first semester N+1, for year N.

Presentation of the indicators

IndicatorSourcesMethod
Number of beneficiariesAttendance recordsCumulative entries in training over one year.
Number of new beneficiariesAttendance recordsDitto, counting beneficiaries never registered before
Bounce rateAttendance recordsCumulative ratio of entries for new training over a year / number of beneficiaries
Attendance rateAttendance recordsRatio of hours of attendance to hours of enrollment
Calendar durationAttendance recordsAverage interval between start date and end date of a cursus year, in months
Satisfaction rateEvaluation sheetsOne-year average of scores given by recipients on items rated from 1 to 5:
– Practical input.
– Theoretical contribution.
– Personal progress.
– Quality of practical information.
– Adequacy of dates, location, duration.
– Quality of the room, catering and accommodation (if relevant).
– Pedagogical quality of the speakers
– Adequacy of the course topics.
Number of dropouts during the year of the programAnnual summaryCumulative output of training over a year, before the final exam of the year
Number of dropouts from the cursusAnnual summaryDitto, after the exam
Success rateAnnual summaryCumulative number of candidates validated by the jury over a year / number of candidates presented for the exam

Figures by year

Year 2019-2020

IndicatorCategoryValue
Number of beneficiariesCursus5
Non-cursus15
All20
Number of new beneficiariesCursus5
Non-cursus15
All20
Bounce rateCursus0%
Non-cursus27%
All20%
Attendance rateCursus93%
Non-cursus100%
All97%
Calendar durationCursus10,5 mos
Satisfaction rateAll93%
Number of dropouts during the year of the programCursus1
Number of dropouts from the cursusCursus4
Success rateCursus100%

Year 2020-2021

IndicatorCategoryValue
Number of beneficiariesCursus1
Non-cursus25
All26
Number of new beneficiariesCursus1
Non-cursus22
All23
Bounce rateCursus100%
Non-cursus24%
All27%
Attendance rateCursus100%
Non-cursus100%
All100%
Calendar durationCursus10,5 mos
Satisfaction rateAll94%
Number of dropouts during the year of the programCursus0
Number of dropouts from the cursusCursus1
Success rateCursus100%

Year 2021-2022

IndicatorCategoryValue
Number of beneficiariesCursus2
Non-cursus94
All96
Number of new beneficiariesCursus2
Non-cursus83
All85
Bounce rateCursus50%
Non-cursus21%
All22%
Attendance rateCursus90%
Non-cursus100%
All95%
Calendar durationCursus10,8 mos
Satisfaction rateAll91%
Number of dropouts during the year of the programCursus0
Number of dropouts from the cursusCursus0
Success rateCursus100%

News

This post is also available in: Français

Contact

This post is also available in: Français

Thanks in advance for fulfilling the below form, we’ll answer you very shortly.

Contact Us
First
Last
reCAPTCHA

RGPD legal notice
These personal data are used to best respond to your solicitation and possibly proceed to your registration, which will not be possible if you do not complete all the fields preceded by an asterisk. These data are only used by the International School of Sumi-e and will not be transmitted to any third party. You can exercise your rights of consultation, rectification, portability and deletion by using this same form. These data are processed and hosted in Gravelines (France).