The 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō

"Numazu"

Thirteen prints from Hiroshige's famous series of woodblock prints, "The 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō," are on display at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, Calif. The exhibit, which is in the Youth Gallery, is aimed at educating young people about Japanese history and culture with maps and timelines, a biography of Andō Hiroshige, and explanations of how the prints were created. Each print is accompanied by a facsimile of the wood block and a poster detailing features of the print, such as the landscape, weather or articles of clothing.

The exhibit will be on display through February 26, 2012.

The Morris Graves Museum of art is located at 636 F Street, Eureka, Calif. Open Wed. through Sunday, noon to 5:00 p.m. An admission donation of $4.00 is suggested, but admission to the museum is free during Arts Alive!, February 4, from 6:00-9:00 p.m. For more information, call (707) 442-0278.

Of Okiro and Encouraging Friends

Some time ago, I had an email conversation with a Facebook tea friend, Rebecca Cragg, owner of Camellia Teas of Ottowa. I lamented that our chashitsu didn't have a proper ro, or sunken hearth. Our grand chashitsu plan is to raise the floor so that we can have a sunken hearth, but that is several years and many dollars away from realization.

"Make an okiro!" she said.

I confess, I had never heard of an okiro. So I did a little homework and learned that okiro are "above-ground" hearths that sit on top of the floor or tatami for rooms that can't accommodate sunken hearths.

Rebecca encouraged me by sending me photos, descriptions and diagrams of okiro she had constructed. With her crafty skills and a little help from Home Depot (they cut her lumber to specification), she assembled and finished two okiro. Most clever of all, she lined them with a cement compound so she could practice sumitemae. (Some okiro have electric inserts, much like electric furo.) We planned to make our okiro using an old ro-buchi (the top frame of the ro), an electric element from a broken furo and a metal ro insert that Harvey-sensei believed was somewhere in storage among many boxes of assorted tea equipment that we had been given stewardship of several years before.

We came to the Tea Ceremony in 1986 while in college at Humboldt State University. We enrolled in "Zen Cultural History," taught by Dr. Lloyd Fulton and his Sensei, Hirose-sensei, of Tokyo. We were hooked. For many years, Hirose-sensei returned each spring to co-teach the course with Dr. Fulton until her health interfered with her ability to travel. Even then, some of her students would come from Japan to help teach Cha-no-yu in her stead, and after several years of study with Hirose-sensei and her students, Harvey was also teaching Cha-no-yu.

As a tireless champion of Japanese culture and architecture, Dr. Fulton had built several tea rooms, a tea house modeled after Tai-an (Sen no Rikyu's tea hut in Kyoto), a portable tea pavilion, and amassed a diverse collection of equipment for the Tea ceremony. One of the tea rooms he built had a raised floor which accomodated a ro, complete with an electric element. It was this this ro that Harvey remembered having the metal insert that he believed we could convert into an okiro.

In 2001, Dr. Fulton unexpectedly passed away. After his estate was settled, his son entrusted us with Dr. Fulton's dogu and related equipment so that we could continue to teach and share Japanese Tea ceremony. With the help of the Ink People Center for the Arts, an arts and culture non-profit organization (NPO), we created Horai Center for the Study of Pacific Culture. At the time we lived in a small two-bedroom house, and we didn't have the space for a tea room at our home, let alone for storing all the dogu, tatami, books and assorted curiosities. Items were inventoried and moved into a storage unit, and we kept out only a few items that we needed for weekly Tea practice.

Several years later, we moved into our current home, a larger house with space for a tea room. We still had to store many of the large items -- such as tatami -- in the infrequently-visited, seldom-tidied storage unit. My nose itched at the thought of digging through dusty boxes in search of this mysterious metal ro insert, but I was encouraged by the thought of practicing ro-temae on a regular basis and anticipated creating an okiro similar to those made by Rebecca. After a surprisingly short and not-too-dusty search -- and to my everlasting delight -- I discovered that although we did not have the metal insert we had two electric okiro! Both units are functional, but one wooden frame needs repair.

 Thank goodness for inspirational friends!

One okiro, no waiting!

This little okiro needs repair.

Oshogatsu Osoji

What Christmas is to Americans, Oshogatsu, the New Year holiday, is to the Japanese. Families gather, gifts are exchanged, businesses close for several days. In preparation, homes are cleaned top-to-bottom and then decorated. There is a frenzy of cooking mochi and other special New Year foods.

"Preparations for Oshogatsu begin in mid-December. Two Kadomatsu are placed in front of the main gate of the house. They are very elaborate ornamental arrangements of pine with bamboo intermingled wth the longer bamboo upright section in the middle. The Kadomatsu stand on the ground like gate guardians. Because of its hardiness, the pine tree stands for long life, and the bamboo for constancy and virtue -- a pun on its name. Shimenawa, or rice straw rope, hangs from the lintel of the entry door, a sacred rope from which hang wisps of gohei, white paper. Another arrangement of pine branches and bamboo adorns the main room withing the house to which blossoming plum is added. ... 

"... Kagami mochi, a large [mochi] surrounded by small ones, is placed on the stand in the main room's tokonoma, or alcove, next to the pine, bamboo and blossoming plum arrangement. ...

"To receive the New Year properly, each household must have susu barai, or cleaning day. It was a formerly hearth hearth exorcism. Even though I have lived away from my homeland for many years, I still practice this ritual at each year's end so that I have a very fresh start at the beginning of the new year."

-- Kimiko's World, Kimiko Sugano

Another word for pre-New Year cleaning is osoji.

In our home, we prepare for Christmas with a thorough cleaning in anticipation of visits from family and friends. Then after Christmas we then turn our attention to the chashitsu, the tea room, in observance of the Japanese tradition of cleaning the home and hearth for the New Year. 

Even though the tatami are swept and wiped each week during okeiko and the rest of the room gets cleaned as needed, dust and cat fur accumulates in the corners and under the mats. It's a chore to lift out the heavy tatami, vacuum and wipe them -- it used to take the two of us all day to clean the room, but our chore has since evolved into a cleaning party. Harvey-sensei's students come to help and the whole process goes so quickly that we're done in a couple of hours. Afterwards, we relax with sake and a bowl of miso or soba, and look forward to the New Year.

Laura and David moved tatami mats from the tea room
and stacked them in the hall.

Tatami removed from tea room,
Harvey dusts the window sill.
Photo by David Luckhardt

Laura dusts screens, tatami and the tea room
with her handy portable vacuum.
Photo by David Luckhardt

Holly washing the windows.
Photo by David Luckhardt

Laura adjusting extensions cords for the okiro.
Photo by David Luckhardt

"Fly to Japan!" Project Not Approved for Funding

We have been following the "Fly to Japan!" project in the news since October. I had mixed emotions about the promotion, but would have seriously considered it if given the chance. Here is the most recent update (Dec. 26, 2011):

The project titled Fly to Japan! (to offer flight tickets to 10,000 foreigners with high potential to communicate Japan’s attractions), which had been covered in a number of media in autumn this year, was not approved as a governmental draft budget of FY 2012. ...

Read the full story here: http://www.mlit.go.jp/kankocho/en/page08_000020.html

The ten million or so dollars that would have flown in tourists should go a long way to restoring the earthquake-damaged regions of Japan. Here's hoping they make it count.

New Year's Day Earthquake

The Japanese people received an ironic gift this New Year's day: another strong earthquake. The epicenter of the magnitude 6.8 temblor was about 600 km (370 miles) south of Tokyo and so deep below the ocean floor that there was no danger of tsunami.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc0007fbh.php#details

http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2012/01/01/powerful-earthquake-rocks-japan-no-danger-of-tsunami/

Three Sounds, Two Inspections

 
One of our county's favorite holiday events is a large arts and crafts fair, Hum Arts, held at the local Fairgrounds. The fair features live music, good food and four exhibit halls filled with beautiful hand-crafted works, just in time for Christmas. Or Hannukah. Or Saturnalia. The fair has been held for so long (I think we've missed going only once or twice in its twenty-plus year tenure) and, as a shopper, I know just where to find particular artists: The garlic braid wreath people are in the small hall next to the grandstand. The sweet, elderly couple selling roasted nuts are at the back of another smallish building on the other side of the grandstand. Several friends and acquaintances have booths in the big hall, selling paintings, prints, tile work, painted silks and pottery. Over the years, we have collected work from several local pottery artists who set up their booths in this particular hall.

I have to admit to a certain acquisitiveness when it comes to vases and bowls, perhaps because they're versatile and widely available in a variety of shapes and materials (we recently purchased a bowl at a retail store that was clearly a product of mass production and  intended to be used as dinnerware; some of my favorite vases are thrift shop finds). And although I enjoy purchasing pottery from galleries, thrift stores and tea shops, buying directly from the artist -- either at a craft fair or a studio -- gives us a unique opportunity to connect through the artist to the individual work of art. Recently, this relationship provided us with a fascinating lesson in pottery and the Way of Tea.

Those who study Cha-no-yu have been taught that during tea whisk inspection, or chasen toshi, the bamboo whisk is dropped on the rim of the bowl from a very short distance (a centimeter or less) which produces a clinking sound. As the whisk is raised, turned and inspected, it is dropped three times at the beginning of the ceremony. We learned this as, "Three sounds, two inspections." (As the ceremony ends, only two sounds are made.) Each type of pottery makes a characteristic sound -- for instance, porcelain can produce a high, clear ringing sound. We're instructed to never drop the whisk on a raku bowl, however, since the pottery is porous, fragile and easily chipped.

It was at this year's Hum Arts fair that Laura purchased a chawan from one of these local pottery artists: a rich, red-brown wood-fired bowl with a classic straight-sided shape and inviting texture. Naturally, she wanted to use it during practice the following week. I can hardly find the words to describe our reaction to the sound the bowl made during chasen toshi: Surpirse? Amazement? Fear? The sound it made was not a clear ring or high-pitched "tink" as we're used to hearing in other high-fired pottery, it was more of a "tank" or "thunk." Laura froze at that first sound, and we looked about at each other, eyes wide, silently questioning whether she should allow the whisk to make that kind of contact with the rim of her new tea bowl. Did we misunderstand the firing of this bowl? Was it indeed "high-fired" pottery? Or was it more like raku? Harvey-sensei contacted the artist with our questions that night after practice.  As we're occasionally in contact with him, I expected that we'd get a reply but what followed was beyond our expectation:

 "Raku bowls are earthenware, which is a low-temperature clay, and it is fired and cooled very fast. The result is a ceramic that is not very dense, hence its relatively low thermal conductivity compared to high-fired wares -- easy to hold when containing hot liquid. In the case of raku ware, the lack of density is the characteristic responsible for the sound when struck. During the firing of earthenware clays, elements that melt basically glue the other bits together, which results in a certain degree of strength, but nowhere near that of high-fired clays -- and the vitrification (melted stuff) is brittle and therefore easy to crack and chip.

"During the firing of stoneware and porcelain, the silica in the clay forms cristobalite crystals, which interlock and give the ceramic a much greater strength. The interlocking crystals are structurally similar to many rocks and minerals, and so the name stoneware is descriptive. Ever higher temperatures do not necessarily mean greater durability, however. As clays are fired to the upper ends of their normal firing range they become more and more vitrified, more glass-like. If high-fire clays were to be put into a very high temperature industrial furnace, they could eventually be melted into glass, and glass is quite strong but not very resistant to shock.

"All of my work is high-fired stoneware and porcelain, and it is fired into the hotter end of its normal firing range. Compared to industrially-made dinnerware that you would find in a department store, for example, my pottery is robust and durable. It chips less readily than most commercial dinnerware. I have microwaved food in my bowls for many years and have never yet had one crack, so my pots consistently demonstrate a very good resistance to thermal shock. However, I do not put my very favorite pieces in the microwave because I do perceive a potential for risk -- I have never done any empirical testing on the limits of my pots to thermal shock. Also, of course, if a thin rim gets knocked against something breakage is possible. The potters' perspective here is that people break pots in normal everyday life, and then we get to make more.

"As to whether a pot makes a ringing clink or a duller clunk, several factors are involved. The composition of the clay, the temperature of firing, and the form (shape of pot and wall thickness) all contribute to the sonic qualities of the pot when struck. I personally enjoy pots that have bell-like qualities, and I flick my fingernail against the rims of all of my pots because I enjoy the sound and I am curious about the differences. The sonic nature of Laura's teabowl does not indicate the structural characteristics of raku ware, rather something that derives from the combination of the various factors just mentioned. I strongly doubt that dropping a bamboo whisk into the bowl would crack the clay structurally. I do not remember whether the bowl that she bought is the one with splashes of melted ash drips in it. If it is, I would caution you folks that those drips are glass-like, and are therefore more brittle than the bowl in general. [We] have quite a few cups and bowls with ash drips in everyday use, including the microwave, pouring in of boiling water, etc, and this normal use has had no negative effect on the drips -- but we have never dropped anything into our pottery.

"If you are curious about the durability of raku ware compared to stoneware there is an easy test. At a second-hand shop buy any really cheap stoneware bowl (50 cents?) and an earthenware bowl (any Mexican or Italian painted pot will be earthenware) of similar thickness. Then drop a ball bearing into each one from the same height, gradually increasing the height with each drop until they break. The results should give you useful information regarding whisk-dropping into different types of pots."

My next trip to a thrift store will be to find a cheap stoneware bowl instead of a vase.

Haikai no Renga Poetry Party

We recently discovered what a wonderful party game Haikai no Renga is! A form of linked poetry, renga is linked verse poetry composed by two or more authors. Here is a sampling of some verses composed by a dozen or so of our guests at Harvey-sensei's birthday party:

White birds flying high
whispers from the southern wind
life beyond the fence

Grace notes; a gift from the sky
Pure white droplets from above

lights bright from above
the streets don't sleep anymore
just rain sometimes veils

Sleeping -- sleeping -- I can't sleep
It's 3 a.m. I'm awake …

 Just like sake in our cups, the verses flowed freely. The full poems and more thoughts about our renga party are posted here at holliix.blogspot.com