The Way of the Brush (Shodo)

 Ibata sensei

Ibata senei's brushes

Shotei Ibata's studio

31 March 2012

For the past four weeks, we have embarked on a new learning adventure: shoto, or the way of the brush (calligraphy).  Our Japanese tutor introduced us to our teacher, Shotei Ibata.  For reasons best known to himself, since he is an eminent artist and teacher, he agreed to meet with us in his studio and teach us the rudiments of holding the brush, mixing ink, making lines, and then simple Kanji and Hiriagana.   Feeling very clumsy, the equivalent in brush work of trying to get out a Japanese sentence, we spent a wonderful, peaceful hour and a half in his studio each week - we making awkward lines and characters, he cheerfully showing us a more proper way with his vermilion ink, and saying "oh, betta" from time to time to encourage us.   We hope we may continue to study calligraphy in Boston.  At the end, he and his wife took us out to sushi dinner, a great kindness. 

In his younger years, Ibata-sensei was a world-wide performance artist, combining music (heavy metal his preferred style), dance and large brush paintings on the floor.  His biggest brush was made from the tails of several horses.  He still teaches and and gives demonstrations in his studio.  We felt pleasded to buy a wood block print of a rooster in the wind, with the calligraphy saying "spring wind."

Love to all

Hokusai Prints and Manga

24 March 2012

This is the 250th year anniversary of Hokusai's birth.  The Museum of Kyoto held a wonderful exhibit of prints and manga, on loan for the first time from the Honolulu Academy of Arts (having been donated there by James Mitchner).  It was a spectacular collection, and one could have easily spent days peering at each print, thinking about marvelous color and design, the fascinating details of daily life, the many different scenes of Japan and so on.  I restrained myself to just the eight pictures above, but that was difficult.

It was a great way to spend a cold and rainy spring day.

Much love to all.

Evening out in Oksaka

Osaka - Dotombori District

20 March 2012

We took the train to Osaka for an impromptu dinner with Giovanni and his Italian mathematician friend Philippo.  After some homestyle food (Izakaya), we walked to the the Dotombori district - a sort of neon madness which one guide book describes as the "survival of the flashiest."  I think that means shops and people.  The best people watching ever!

Much love

Ise Grand Shrine and Meotoiwa (Wedded Rocks)

Hoshidekan Ryokan

Bridge at Ise Inner Shrine

Ise Inner Shrine

Meotoiwa

17-18 March 20

We decided to take a last weekend trip before our move, and chose the Ise Peninsula, the site of Japan's noblest shrine, Jingu, the spiritual home of Japanese people.  The ancient shrine is comprised of two sites, and outer shrine, Geku, devoted to Omikami, deity of the protection of food, and the inner shrine, Naiku, devoted to Amarterasu (the supreme ancestral deity of the Japanese Imperial Family).  Amarterasu was thought to be enshrined in this location in the forest about 2000 years ago.  Amarterasu is the symbol of the sun and the deity that nurtures peace and harmony.  We found the shrines to be beautifully austere, nestled among ancient Cypress trees (Cryptomeria).  The architecture is more representative of the ancient Japanese style.  Gold leaf is only apparent on roof supports, and there is little decoration.  Shrine are rebuilt every 20 years in accordance with Shinto beliefs.  After visiting the shrines we returned to the old ryokan where we were staying, a wonderful old rambling building with a lovely interior garden with a water koto.  After dinner we were treated to listening to some OLD records of Josephine Baker, Louis Armstrong etc which the inn keeper played on an ancient wind up record player!  Great!

Next day we took the bus to Futamiura, famous for the Meotoiwa (wedded rocks) and the Futami Okitama Shrine ("Frog shrine"), devoted to the sanctity of marriage.  The rocks are part of the shrine, and are dedicated to Izanagi and Izanami (the marriage of the creator gods).  They have been tied with a rice straw rope (Shimenawa) for thousands of years and the rope is changes about 3 times a year by the monks and visitors.  You can guess which rock is the man and which the woman.  The Japanese word for frog is kaeru, which is the same as the verb for to return or come back...There were dozens of frog statues of every description and size.  We ate some exquisite grilled-in-the-shell oysters from Ise, certainly the best we have ever tasted - plump and tender, just barely boiled in their own juice) before getting on the bus again.

We took a walk in the Kawasaki, the old section of Ise by the river, poked into some little shops, and headed for the train home.

Love to all

Kamogawa Kai (International Friendship Group)

Detail of Screen showing Game of Chance

Repaired Roof of Founder's Hall

Repairing the Roof of Amida Hall

14 March 2012

Kamogawa Kai is an organization devoted to organizing trips and cultural events for foreign visitors to Kyoto.  The March trip was a tour of Higashi Hongan ji Temple, devoted to the memory of the Buddhist teacher, Honan, who died in 1262.  It is a magnificent wooden temple complex, currently under renovation (see above photo).  We were fortunate to be able to see many of the inner areas of the temple including beautiful tea rooms, with screens we could walk right up to (almost never possible at most temples where you see them in a dark room from a distance).  It was a great privilege.  The temple is also known for its hair ropes, made from the donated hair of female followers from all over Japan and used to transport the huge beams (hair makes hemp ropes much stronger).  The last stop was the Shosei-en detached garden surrounded by a marvelous stone wall.

Bye Bye Genpatsu (Nuclear Power Plant): Protest in Kyoto

10 March 2012

The question of nuclear power in Japan is complex, and a deeply emotional question for the Japanese, and there is clearly growing antinuclear sentiment.  The day before the first anniversary of the Great Eastern Earthquake and Fukushima disaster, there was an energetic protest march in Kyoto against nuclear power which started in Maruyama Park.  We decided to join in, having been given balloons and yellow flowers by other participants and made to feel welcome.  The participants were young and old, monks, babies in strollers, families, etc.  There were many explicit banners, some amusing costumes, musical encouragement.  Everyone was headed to Kyoto City Hall with a sense of purpose but orderly in typical Japanese fashion.  We did not get that far, but were glad to have participated.

We send all our love

Our Dinner Invitations

Five Story Pagoda at Horyu-ji

Satoki and his JR Train Set

Harada-san, Ryosuke-san, and Win at Horyu-ji

9 &13 March 2012

Now that we are getting ready to leave, our social life is heating up.  We've had four dinners in Japanese houses, which is a lot.  Only family and close friends are invited "home", so we are honored.  Once in the house, one is shown all the "special" things such as treasures from trips abroad, the small garden, the bonsai, and always, the photographs.  We didn't bring ours, which we've regretted, though we're not really sure if guests should show photos or focus on admiring the ones they are shown.  There is a kind of cozy intimacy "at home" that is charming and makes us want to cry.  In Japan, "how" you are depends on "where" you are.  Our issue, of deciding "how we really feel", and how and whether to express that seems to be a less conflicted matter (we think; we don't know).

One of our invitations was to visit one of my students in Nara, Japan's capitol city before 794CE.  While there we visited his favorite temple, Horyuji, a vast and peaceful place, bult in about 607CE, and dedicated to the life of Prince Shotoku who was one of the early advocates of Buddhism in Japan.  It may, or may not, have burned down in 670CE, but has stood since that time, giving it some claim to the title of the oldest wooden structure in the world.

Love to all,