Sen-No Rikun, a tea master, wanted to hang a basket of flowers on a pole. He asked the carpenter to help him, pointing from below where to place the basket: a little higher or lower, a little to the right or to the left, until he found that it was exactly in place.
“Now she’s definitely in the right place,” Sen-No Rikun finally said.
The carpenter, to test his master, marked the spot and then pretended to forget where the basket should be placed.
- Here, or maybe here? - asked the carpenter, pointing out various places.
But the tea master’s concept of proportion was so precise that he showed the carpenter exactly the same place.