Hagoromo in 2010

A recital performance at the Kongo Noh Theater in Kyoto.  My teacher, Udaka Michishige, is the chorus leader just below my fan.

A long time ago on Mio cape, near present day Shizuoka, a man of low birth is cursed with the bad karma from taking the lives of animals for a living.  He is a fisherman in this life, but his name indicates a more glorious past.  White Dragon.

In the ancient Chinese collection of stories, “Garden of Tales” from the 1st century BC, is a story an adviser tells the king as a warning not to take on the guise of one of his own subjects.  The adviser tells about a white dragon who turned himself into a fish and lived in a pond on earth until one day a fisherman shot him in the eye with an arrow.  The dragon flew away to the king of heaven to complain, but the king of heaven replied that fishermen shoot fish for a living and there was nothing he could do.

And so, it is said by some that the dragon died and was reborn, this time as the object of his hatred, the fisherman.  Of course, the fisherman has no knowledge of his past life as a dragon and lives in ignorance of a greater good, except for a strange affinity for natural beauty.   This is the point in the story from which the play “Hagoromo” begins.

On German Radio Again!

In addition to her radio program on “Japanorama” about the Origin program, Uta Kodaira made a program about Noh, including an interview of me and sound recordings of Tatsushige-sensei, who happened to be practicing at Iori on the day Frau Kodaira came to Iori for the interviews.

Frau Kodaira asked me about what Noh is, about women and foreigners performing the traditionally male art-form, and about my own studies of Noh.  With this program, Frau Kodaira also began spreading the word in Germany about Udaka-sensei’s Europe tour in November.  At the end of the program is a clip from Genshigumo/Inori, a Noh play written by Udaka-sensei which will be performed in Paris, Dresden, and Berlin on the tour.

http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/german/index.html

To listen, go to the link above, click on “Wochenübersicht” and then on “So.” The clip should pop up in Realplayer.

NOTE: Since NHK is putting all its efforts into producing international English television, their quality work in radio with a history dating to before WWII was terminated last year.  These broadcasts are no longer online, and I don’t have a recording either. . .

Interview with Onozomi.com

And somehow I forgot to mention this online article. I was interviewed by Onozomi, the company who does Iori’s internet support and specializes in other forms of publicity as well. The series of interviews includes various Kyoto personalities, such as Murata Yoshihiro of Kikunoi (the most internationally known kaiseki chef), Randy Channell (a Canadian who is an elite tea master of the Urasenke school of tea ceremony), the owner of Francoise (a popular cafe), a Kyoto University professor, a Doshisha professor, company presidents, etc. To say the least, I am stunned and honored to be listed among such an elite group of people.

On German Radio!

In February, I was interviewed along with Alex Kerr by a wonderful woman, Uta Kodaira, who works for NHK World Radio Germany. She puts together a weekly radio program that’s aired on Sundays about various facets of Japanese culture. Last week was the first program starring Alex Kerr, and this week is the first program in which I speak about the Origin Arts program at work. This radio clip was broadcast over shortwave radio in Germany.

http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/german/index.html

To listen, go to the link above, click on “Wochenübersicht” and then on “So.” The clip should pop up in Realplayer.

Frau Kodaira’s program will be shut down in September, as NHK focuses more on television instead of radio.

Ian in USA Today

A good friend who studied in Kyoto with me, Carmen, is now living in Shanghai with her boyfriend, Ian. Ian writes a thought-provoking blog about the recent discovery that he has a cancerous tumor in his brain. Even more recently, this blog was featured in a USA Today article.  NOTE: Ian’s blog has moved to http://www.ianhanksblog.com/ since writing this post.  It hasn’t been updated since February 2008, but I have news from Carmen that he is still active in China.

Congradulations on your great writing, Ian!

A New Blog

It’s cherry blossom season in Kyoto

I have been living in Kyoto for almost 2 years, and I want to start this blog to write more seriously about thoughts from my experiences, from Japanese literature, and from my various traditional arts classes. I have been taking private lessons in tea ceremony for two years, took lessons in wearing kimono for one year, and I recently started lessons in Japanese calligraphy and Noh theatre. Although I do have a food blog, Cooking with Chopsticks, I wanted an outlet that forced me to organize more serious observations. And so, everything I write here is a work in progress. Please bear with my strange flights of reason (if they may even be called reason instead of fancy).

Whenever I meet a European or North American unfamiliar with life in Japan, the divide between East and West is brusquely revealed. I felt the same divide when I was graduating high school and realizing most of my education thus far had been quite Euro-centric. I write this blog to begin refining my own understanding of Japan. If in the process I might help someone understand my fascination with the beauty of Japanese arts or help someone understand a theory in Japanese thought, I will consider my writings a huge success.

Finally, in choosing the title of this blog, “While the Mountain Sleeps,” I drew on a poem by Yosano Akiko, and applied it to my own drive towards certain goals.

“Mountain moving day has come,”
is what I say. But no one believes it.
Mountains were just sleeping for a while.
Earlier, they had moved, burning with fire.
But you do not have to believe it.
O people! You’d better believe it!
All the sleeping women move
now that they awaken.

Yosano, Akiko. “Mountain Moving Day.” River of Stars: Selected Poems of Yosano Akiko. Trans. Sam Hamill and Keiko Matsui Gibson. Boston and London: Shambhala Press, 1996.