the moon and the mountains

About the middle of last month I received and email from one of my eikaiwa participants Yoshinori, who I've written about before. We correspond irregularly via email and its always fun to read his because it can be about almost anything....financial news, what he's working on in his garden, questions about news stories he's read lately and a phrase used that he might not understand.

In said email mentioned above, he tells me matter of factly that he applied for the both of us, to submit a work in the local "culture festival" that was on the first weekend in November. This festival is very similar to one I would go to often as a child. Only a select few of you who read this will understand (my apologies for this) but it was very much like the Harvest Festival held in Brownfield every year to celebrate, you guessed it, that years cotton harvest. This festival in Shinji didn't have a parade, but everything else about it was very reminiscent.

There were small groups of old women in chorus clubs singing on stage, places for elementary and junior hgh school students exemplary pieces of work like art and crafts. A baked goods table. Random stalls selling plastic toys for small kids and big. More food stalls selling fried foods. And all this in and around a building no bigger than a high school gymnasium. There I saw my students, some neighbors, the lady who I buy my food and wine from, a couple of eikaiwa regulars and hoards of kindergarten children that yell at me on sight.


Back to Yoshinori...
Amused to say the least, I agreed and caught up with him after school one day the week before the festival. I met him in yet another community center in Shinji. I'm learning that the parts of a town that I would consider neighborhoods have their own small community houses. The one I hold my adult conversation class in is on a broader town wide scale, the one I met Yoshinori at was of the neighborhood variety.

When I got there he was passed out taking a small nap. He told me later that he had been there all day practicing since 9am. Practicing what you ask? Well, in english we call it Japanese calligraphy....in Japanese they call it しょどう(shodou). Yoshinori has been practicing this ancient writing form since he was a child and since retiring some twenty five years ago has been doing it every day.

He first explained to me that in his opinion, there are 3 essential matters of calligraphy, and I'm quoting him exactly on this because I loved the way he said it.

"Let's think about what makes us feel beauty.
Imagine the explosion of a volcano, the calmness of the lake in the mountains
and a level line of horizon."

He then showed me pictures of paintings that he liked, that looked to be from renaissance, one of which being the "mona lisa", and what about each picture inspired in his writing.

After this, he had me practice strokes with him. This was done in a hunched over standing position that felt awkward but of which he assured me was correct. With my feet spread far apart I simply mimicked his moments, using the back of my hand, brushing the ground as he did. It was bizarre, because sometimes I did so well that he literally laughed in excitement and when I didn't we simply practiced more until did well enough two or three times in a row. No matter how hard I tried to understand what I did, when I was doing it right, I could never fully grasp what was the difference between a right and wrong method. It could have been the weight shift with my stroking movement or my wrist turned one way as opposed to another. I really couldn't decipher.

Once he felt comfortable with my apparent progress, he brought out the brush and ink. The "ink" is made from the charcoal. We made several passes and attempts at what he wanted me to do. Thing about this writing is the the paper is very thin, almost like tissue paper for wrapping gifts or stuffing boxes. So one attempt is all you can really do. The paper takes a while to dry with the wet ink on it, not lending to retracing a good writing.

This done, Yoshinori explained to me what inspired his decision to use the particular characters we were practicing. Some weeks before, he had been on a community bus trip to Nagoya to visit a historical area and its cultural attractions there. On the ride back, while sipping on sake, he viewed out the window at the moon hung just over the mountains. The next day, in Shinji, he did this on a random piece of paper he had lying around.

We took a couple of attempts at a final product. Him coaching me through it. Out of the last 3, I unfortunately made a distinct error in each. Each of which, he told me, resulted from concentrating too hard. After a 5 minute staring contest at the final products, he decided on a final product for our submission and the we celebrated by drinking green tea and assorted nuts.

Like a lot of the things myself and other foreigners here will describe as "very Japanese" this had an overwhelming feeling of ceremony to it. Not necessarily a "right or wrong" mentality, but a "to get to D, you have to visit C first, and B before that." Even if the step might seem trivial, to prefect it could only ensure more so that all other steps will fall into place as they should. The entire evening was extremely relaxing and Yoshinori had the patience me I wish I could find with other aspects of my own life.