Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Flower Moon



“Each day is another good day.” 「日々是好日」

日々is short of 日日 in Japanese. So, the first, second, and fifth characters are日. It means day or the sun. 是 is “is” or “thus.” 好 means “good.”

The scroll in a tea room is the most important ocha utensil. It can be the theme of the invitation. When we are invited to an ocha party and enter a tea room, we step over to the front of the scroll and sit down. We look at the scroll as well as its frame and the flowers and the vase, and enjoy and appreciate the arts and the hospitality of the host. I grew up in this kind of environment, so, when I happen to be in such a scene even if it isn’t a formal ocha party, I still go up and pay respect to the scroll and other arts in the tokonoma alcove and converse with the owner of the arts.



Last week, we played a game called Kagetsu. Kagetsu means Flower-Moon. It requires five performers.

First we finish eating our sweets at the waiting room. Each member draws a bamboo chip from a paper pouch. The member who receives the chip with the moon in the back gets to perform first, and the member with the flower chip goes next.

Someone said, “The moon.” I flipped my chip and looked at the black ink drawing of a cherry blossom. Sawanaka Sensei looked at me and said, “Who received the flower?” “Flower!” I said. I’ve seen different Kagetsu played before, but this was my first participation.

I had no confident to join this Kagetsu. But the Sensei insisted that I went ahead and just tried it. She said, “You’ll come to realization later as you do it.” Her persuasion was a big deal to me because I’ve never met such an open and generous ocha teacher. So, I just followed the sensei’s instructions.



In this Kagetsu, we served bowls of both light and thick power tea. So, the photo is a leftover of thick powder tea.




The whole process is a performance, and each member gets to serve a bowl of tea. All of us are quite busy thinking what to do next and when. The turn of serving tea or drinking tea is decided by drawing the bamboo chips, and we all look at the back of their chips at the same time. The shape of bamboo chips is concave. The shiny part is the top, and the back is one among moon, flower, and number one to three.

I don’t know how many different Kagetsu exist. But in the past, I saw a lovely summer Kagetsu. The hostess provided a bunch of tea flowers. The tea flowers are indigenous field flowers and have no scent. The members took turns to pick some flowers and inserted them onto a double wicker screen. At the end of the Kagetsu, the screen ended up a beautiful art of collaboration.

Now I can imagine what my mother used to do from her talk here and there, and what she left behind. Her Kagetsu required high skills and knowledge. Her group members wrote poems during their Kagetsu. They were all very knowledgeable in Japanese history, literature, and other arts. Those were the people who couldn’t help but recite major ancient poems in right occasions. To respond to one’s poem by a poem requires not only spontaneous writing skills but also quite deep knowledge about classical literature and history




Ocha utensils attract practitioners to ocha parties. At the end of a performance, the main guest can request the performer to show some of the main utensils. The guest retrieves the utensils and returns to her seat and examines and appreciates them by gently holding each piece. The rest of the guests also have opportunities to see and touch the same utensils. The woman in the photo is called Hanto. Hanto is an assistant to the performer. She came to retrieve those utensils.

Like a small museum, we get to see pieces of arts and the best thing is we can examine and touch them and ask questions about the utensils. In some ocha parties, the hosts shows their valuable utensils made by well-known artists. It’s a great treat to see them up close.

6 comments:

Luciana said...

Keiko, I loved your description! I truly admire the attention to details that is put into everything! I´m very ignorant about Japanese culture and History, as opposed to some of our friends who have read about it. I think it´s really nice this bridge that you´ve been building among different cultures. :-)

keiko amano said...

Lu,

I’m glad that this attention to detail didn’t drive you crazy. It did when I was growing up, and more or less all my life. Good or bad, it’s our culture. So, you can imagine, how detail everything is in the world of ocha. But, don’t worry. We take only good parts.

The first photo is a good example of detail. I took the similar photo three times, and that was the third photo. The performer held the both sides of her red square fukusa as the way you see it. Sawanaka sensei suggested the performer to lower her right hand a little so that the guests could see the edge of the red fukusa. This was the beginning part of the procedure in which the performer examined the condition of a few utensils and purified each piece. If you are not sick about more detail, I can show you more later. But I’ll probably make Vincent go crazy.

Luciana said...

Hahaha! You´re right about the last part! ;-)
I think attention to details is fine as long as you don´t lose your perspective on the big picture, and keep your flexibility, as you described your teacher to be like. As with everything, balance is the key.:-)

keiko amano said...

Lu,

I agree that we always need the balance while seeking the truth, so to speak. The question is from what point of view.

Unlike a theater, an authentic ocha stage is a small room. In the standard four-and-a–half-tatami-mat room, guests see everything, every move, up close at the same eye level. This is a formal, intimate communication, and guests are participants, not mere audience.

A Japanese linguist recently posted a question, “Can we translate cultures?” I thought it is an appropriate question. I’ve been trying it, but it seems close to impossible. Probably Portuguese or English linguists don’t need to throw such a question. What do you think?

Rebb said...

Keiko,

I am really enjoying learning about ocha. I had no idea of the importance of the scroll as an ocha utensil and how it can be the theme of the invitation. I like that it is ok to touch and appreciate the pieces of art.

Is Kagetsu part of ocha or is it performed separate? Does each person serve tea to the person next to them who has not been served?

It must be quite a wonderful experience for you, Keiko, to be able to see, appreciate, and share your mother’s art. I know that you’ve also had your challenging moments with her, but I imagine her smiling deeply upon you. Isn’t it wonderful to be able to connect with our mothers even when they are in the other realm…

keiko amano said...

Hi Rebb,

Yes, you can see up close and touch valuables, but of course, we cannot wear rings, a wrist watch and other accessories to an ocha room. Also ocha practitioners’ nails are trimmed short. I always make sure my nails are short, and I make sure I don’t wear any jewelry that day. But I often forget to remove my wrist watch, but the sensei notices it as soon as she sees me.

About your question, the Kagetsu we played was a small game that included several ocha procedures. So, when practitioners plan to do it, they probably do Kagetsu only that day. When five of us did a simple Kagetsu that evening, some of us ended up not performing a whole ocha procedure. So the sensei asked us to write down the names of the people who did it so that next time we play Kagetsu, the person who didn’t get to perform a whole procedure would get to perform. I guess I am the one, but I feel I’ve done enough that day! I had a flower chip, so I cleaned a bowl and made a second bowl of tea. Plus, I took the photos. I was quite busy.

So if we have enough time, all of us will get our turn. So, if we make poems and write it on a thin rice paper, it probably takes all day! I have feeling that once you or Luciana learns this a little, maybe you get hooked since both of you are poets. If you do it, I’ll be shooting photos for you.

Thank you, Rebb, for your words about my mother. She certainly planted seeds in me.