>>> Item number 23656 from WRITERS LOG9401A --- (79 records) ----- <<< Date: Fri, 7 Jan 1994 18:35:02 JST Reply-To: WRITERS Sender: WRITERS From: Mike Barker Subject: BACKGROUND: Kabuki, Sumi-e, tea, flowers Hi, Bill Arp (and anyone else) - Tink, any information/ideas/descriptions/experiences with traditional - Japanese Kabuki productions? Or Sumi-e black ink art? or the tea - ceremony? or flower arranging? All of these Japanese arts are to - be included in a forthcoming course I'm teaching on Arts of Japan. - Any help, ideas would be greatly appreciated. Kabuki - aside from the fact that it is still shown regularly on the public T.V. channels here (sometimes the commercial channels), I don't really know much. One odd bit - when we lived in Tokyo, people said it was best to go there and watch it live. Why? Simple - in the theater, they provide earphones and a running commentary in Japanese, with translations into modern Japanese. I.e., most Japanese can't understand a word of it either. Oh - if I understood it correctly, the early Kabuki was open to both sexes. But there were some problems (either artists supplementing their income or perhaps some scandals - I've heard several stories), and one of the up-high folks declared that only men would be allowed to perform in the Kabuki. For anyone who feels left out - this led directly to the establishment of the Takarazuka in Kansai (Osaka/Kobe), which is only open to women. They do a variety of dance, play, and other performances. Sumi-e - this literally means black ink drawings. Aside from that, I am ignorant. Tea ceremony - still considered a good thing for young girls to learn while waiting for marriage. We had a friend in Tokyo - Fujio-sensai - who was a master of tea. I don't remember his tea ceremony name (apparently many masters have a pseudonym used in the ceremony). When we knew him, he taught tea ceremony to other masters of tea - i.e., he was a teacher of teachers? Bald, laughing older man. One of my favorite images of him was when he met us once in summer clothing (like an oversized bathrobe), wooden geta on his feet, down in the middle of Tokyo. He talked to us for a few minutes in the crowd, then dashed into the middle of the street - four lanes of busy downtown traffic - to wave down a taxi and take us to dinner. He told me once that since I was in my thirties, I should start learning tea. Then when I was in my sixties, I would start to understand tea! He had a famous collection of tea instruments. He had started collecting them before WWII, and seeing the war coming, buried them. Then after the war, he dug up his collection. Many houses still are built with a tea room in the garden, or at least have a place where the tea instruments are kept (often the "beauty spot" in the main living room). Flower arranging - this also is something every young girl is expected to study. We've been to some of the smaller shows. Again, I'm really ignorant about this. One thing that I don't quite know if most people realize is that as in Europe (with royal patrons), these arts really grew up under the Kyoto and/or Tokyo "uppper class" patronage. I.e., part of being idle rich under the shoguns and so on was being able to perform tea ceremony or flower arranging to the rather stringent and odd standards. Not "conspicious consumption," but "conspicious idleness" to be able to devote such amounts of time and effort to essentially pointless activities. I know some people have tied these also to Zen influence, and others, but I tend to think of it as being the conspicious display of being able to waste time. Maybe that's what usenet is? tink