I took these photos last month behind the Kanagawa Modern Literary Museum in Yokohama.
Rebb, Lu, and Vincent,
I don't remember what kind of sites you've already seen, but I will list some links I just found below. There are many Ikebana schools. My mother practiced Ohara-ryu.
You can choose a school from the following link.
http://www.ikebanahq.org/
http://www.ikebana.org/index.html
There are also many schools of ocha, so I picked the one my mother practiced which is Urasenke. It probably has the largest number of members in the world.
San Francisco
http://www.urasenke.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGr9BGIB6Ys
http://www.facebook.com/pages/San-Francisco-CA/Urasenke-Foundation-San-Francisco/56608491953
Brasil
http://www.urasenke.or.jp/texte/world/e_brazil01/e_brazil01.html
London
http://www.urasenke.orbix.co.uk/weare.html
9 comments:
Keiko, Thanks for posting all the links. That was nice of you. The arrangements on the Ikebana.org site are lovely.
The pictures are great. I like little walking paths like that and I see the hydrangea!
p.s. For some reason this particular blog does not show up in my "reading list" in that little window on eblogger. Hmm. But, I found it, so that's good. Thank you!
Rebb,
I reseached the related sites to show you many times in the past, and I think I should find a few good sites with interesting photos and videos depicting exactly how practitioners are enjoying their arts. But so far, I haven't seen one. Not even one. I have to think about this. This could be a story or a beginning of my new career as a film producer?!
About my site not showing up in your reading list, I have one like it for a long time. But she hasn't blog for a long time, and sometimes, a few strange things happened, but they were corrected later. So, I don't know what is the rule. But do you know updating your site dosen't send a notification? I'm sure it doesn't to other people, too. That's a good thing to have. Do you get notifications from Lu and Vincent and me? No?
Hmm. Yes, I see it now, Keiko, Film Producer Extraordinaire! You can produce all of our scripts. Yes!
It does seem we are having a few technical glitches. I do have the notifications on—at least I think I do. It works if I’ve visited and commented and then it will notify me, so that’s a good thing.
I’m still waiting for one of my library books on scents. I found one more called “What the nose knows.” In the meantime I went to Amazon and found two books and bought them. One is called “Scent: The mysterious and essential powers of smell” and the other is called “Kodo: The way of incense.” The author of the Kodo book is an American and it says that he is a perfume historian and that he participated in the Kodo ceremony in Japan. I know it can be risky to read a book on this art by an American, but there are not many books to choose from. On the back of the book from Amazon it says he worked at Baieido, said to be “one of the oldest incense companies in Japan.” I’ve always loved scent and hearing you talk about it made me want to learn more about it as an additional way to understand and appreciate one of the many arts of Japan. It’s so exciting, Keiko! So much learning. And I hope to post any reactions, etc., that I may have as blogs. Then you can help me with anything I might be missing.
Rebb,
You're ahead of me on kodo. When I return to Japan, I want to take one class just to see how they enjoy the art so that I can blog about it. And maybe, I can show you some of my kodo utensils later on. I tend to promise a lot because I really want to show and talk about it, but writing a little takes so much time sometimes. The last red flower photo I promised to you took three weeks, I guess. So, you can expect it without waiting. Or should I say not to expect and you'll see when you least expect it?
I think at the rate you are learning about traditional Japanese arts through reading and research, you'll be soon an expert in the fields. In fact, you are probably an expert already. Many Japanese do not have the knowledge of ocha practice and probably never heard of Flower Moon games.
Keiko, I’m so glad to have learned that Kodo exists. I would never have known if not for your blog and for us talking about scent. That sounds great to take a Kodo class when you are back in Japan. As usual I look forward to learning about it and seeing your utensils in due time--At your own pace, Keiko. Yes, we will just see what materializes—no expectations…spontaneity!
I thank you again, Keiko. I am enjoying learning about traditional Japanese arts through your blogs and further reading. I am actually seeing some parallels in how my grandmother was (and you know she’s not Japanese). But I see better now why I’m not a traditional “Westerner.”
Keiko,
Your blog is a wonderful resource for so much of Japanese art and culture.
Today I checked my blog on Human Creation after years and was surprised to find that you had read through the posts with interest. That blog is heavy to read even for me. I do not know how I wrote the stuff some years ago. It was a fit of inspiration then.
Ashok
Ashok,
Welcome to my site! I'm honored. I'm glad you find some interest in Japanese culture and arts.
Your Sumerian site was very satisfying to read. Yes, I can imagine how hard it was to research that much and compose the essays. It’s very dense. I’m also surprised that almost no one left comments. I’m sure many people are interested in the subject. I tried to find out more about Sumerians before, but all I read was old information, and they were all vague. I thought maybe most people were afraid to speak up. I read that in the past, western scholars made biased reports on their findings. I hope it isn’t like that anymore, and I would like to read the source of your research material someday.
Talking of Sumerians, the other day, I met a young Indian woman named Deepthi and told her about your Sumerians site. She said Ashok is the name of a good emperor. I remember Ashoka King. That’s interesting because in Japanese customs, I don’t think anyone ever name their child after emperors. Anyway, we became friends instantly and both of us went to a poetry club. There, she introduced Sarojini Naidu, a poet laureate of India, and Naidu’s poem. I didn’t know about the poet and her activism. I’ll post the poem in cerebration of your and Deepthi’s Indian heritage.
Thanks for your very nice comments Keiko.
In India they name persons on emporors and even gods and goddesses. Thank God , though that they did not name me on some indian god. I would have hated that.
Ashok is a 2000 year or older Indian emporor who adopted Buddhism as the official religion and sent monks all over the ancient world including Japan. At his time India was very well organised ( which unfortunately it is not now) and culturally vibrant.
Ashok,
I can't imagine that 2000 years ago, Indians knew Japan existed.
I wonder how they knew.
The earliest Japanese record seemed to be 538 AD when Buddhism came to Japan from China by way of Korea. Since Japanese monks were sent to Tang to study, Monk Kuukai studied Sanskrit from an Indian monk there. But that was around 800 AD. And also, when a group of Chinese monks came to Japan, and I think it was Kuukai who was called to check one of them because he spoke unknown language. The book did not explain what language the foreign monk spoke, but my wild imagination is that maybe he spoke either Sanskrit or one of Indian language.
Anyway, I was so fascinated to read about monks, I wrote a short story of a Chinese monk (Sanzo-hoshi) who went to India to bring a copy of scriptures.
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