"We human beings exist in ‘space’ and together with that, we exist in ‘time’. As for ‘time’, the end is expected, that is ‘ruins’, that means death. A certain architect said, "when I plan a structure, I expect the end of the structure. In other words, ‘ruins’.” I thought, this architect is a rare, unique one. He is an architect and a poet. Normally, when you think of a structure, it's in space, but when we think of it in time, we must think of ruins, inevitably.

With ruins that have been eroded, nothing seems to exist inside the ruins, but actually, because of that, only the essence of the structure remains. Nature produced that. Which is so very beautiful. Maybe we can compare it to a Haiku. A Haiku carves down the words to just the essence. In a Haiku, only the essence of the words remain. Like a transparent crystal. I can see this deep inside ruins, too. Normally, it's invisible. But invisible things exist. We can see, feel, invisible things, and gradually we begin to notice there's an indescribable, mysterious something in ruins. In this moment, we will be filled with the feeling of prayer. We don't know why, but we want to join our palms naturally.

The essence of ruins, beautiful and divine, gives us peace of mind, and mercy. There's immortality in the essence of ruins that tells us the greatness, and wonderfulness, and depth of ruins. So whenever I stand in front of ruins, I join palms naturally, and want to pray, pray to the sky. The tower on the top of the ruins symbolises the prayer. The prayer goes up to the sky, to the Universe, endlessly.

My work, ‘Ruins’ (subtitle: 'Prayer to Sky').
Oh, Ruins on my mind, I pray.
Just pray to the sky."

Maruyama believes that the most important features in the artistic representation of Buddha are his head and his hands. Therefore, the head and many expressions of Buddha and Buddhist Monks and Nuns are often the subjects of the artist's ceramic works. His most recent series of heads however, depict an icon of Christianity; the Virgin Mary. Maruyama was moved to create this series of disfigured 'Mama Maria' statues after watching a news report on churches situated within Nagasaki; one of the two Japanese cities that were devastated by nuclear bombs during World War II. "When I saw that the churches had retained the Mama Maria statues that had been severely damaged by the bombs, I was so deeply moved. It was a a greatly honourable sign of respect for those particular statues and what they had endured, and to look at them, they are so dignified and carry a much deeper meaning".

Maruyama believes that the most important features in the artistic representation of Buddha are his head and his hands. Therefore, hands are often the subject of the artist's ceramic works. His most recent series of 'distorted hands' however, hold within them a much darker story. They pay homage to the victims of Minamata disease, caused by the unscrupulous dumping of toxic waste into the ocean by a chemical factory in the Kumamoto prefecture in Japan for over three decades in the mid 1900s. These waters provided food and livelihood for the thousands of residents in nearby fishing villages, and the severe mercury poisoning distorted their hands along with many other horrific symptoms, and even proved fatal for more than half of its victims.

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