Month: February 2023

Our Life, Like River’s Flow

According to the 12th-century Japanese poet

Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa

It’s almost impossible not to recite the opening phrase of Hojoki.  The image of the flowing river is so inseparable from this essay written in 12th-century Japan, by Kamo no Chomei (1155 – 1216). 

There are quite a few English translations of this famous opening phrase.  Among them, the one by Minakata Kumagusu is my favorite.  It goes like this:

“Of the flowing river the flood ever changeth, on the still pod the foam gathering, vanishing, stayth not.  Such too is the lot of men and of the dwellings of men in this world of ours.” 

Translated by Minakata Kumagusu and Viktor Dickins

…

In this quite short essay, the author mentions disasters, both natural and human-made, that he experienced while living in Kyoto. 

  • a great fire in 1177
  • a significant storm in 1180
  • a temporary move of the capital to Fukuhara and the great confusion caused by it in 1180
  • a terrible famine in 1181 – 1182
  • a devastating earthquake in 1185

So many people’s lives were lost.  So many houses, small and large, were destroyed.  Wealth, power, fame… nothing stays the same.  How fragile a person’s life…

Impermanence is the underlying theme of this essay.  And the author finds the theme best exemplified by the river’s flow.

行く川の流れは絶えずしてしかも元の水にあらず。澱みに浮かぶうたかたは、カウ消えかつ結びて久しく止まることなし。世の中の人と住みかと、またかくの如し。

Source: Minakata Kumakusu and F. Victor Dickins “A Japanese Threau of the Twelfth Century, Notes from a Jo-Square Hut”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, April, 1905.

Can You Bring Nature into Your Home?

I began questioning the Japanese translation of the English word “nature”

Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa

I had a visitor from Japan last night.  As a nice gesture to welcome the guest, I cut a branch from the camellia tree in my yard, made a simple arrangement, and placed it at the entrance.

For me, this short stem with vivid red flowers and thick leaves in shiny green represents nature, with no doubt.  You can bring nature into your home.  Being at home and enjoying nature at the same time has no contradiction in my mind.

In articles written by American or western writers, however, nature seems to be something different.  In their articles, nature seems something you encounter or experience only when you drive away from the city and step into mountains or forests.  If you find man-made structures around you, you don’t say you are with nature.

I learned at school that nature is an English translation of the Japanese word “自然shizen”.  In my interpretation, the camellia branch I brought home is something of  “自然.”  However, maybe it’s not appropriate or it makes no sense to bring nature into a home?

Definitely some words, concepts, or expressions in one language has no direct translation into another.  “生きがい ikigai” is one example.  A simple concept the Japanese people take for granted, but a foreign one to the western culture.  Some people made a thorough analysis of this word and created a whole training business out of this concept.

Does “自然shizen” also fall in this category? Maybe I should be careful not to simply translate it into nature in English?   

My Mother Worships Mountain

And my grandma worshipped the sun… Is it that crazy?

Mt. Miwa – Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa

My mother visits Omiwa Shrine in Nara, Japan, every 1st day of the month.  It takes about an hour by train and bus from where she lives.  Rain or shine, she never fails to make a visit, and always brings back sacred water in bottles.  She shares the water with my cousin and her family who live nearby. 

Omiwa Shrine: Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa

Although Omiwa Shrine has an impressive building, the sacred object is not housed there.  The sacred object of worship is Mt. Miwa, a mountain, or rather a large hill behind the building. 

My mother told me that her mother (my grandmother) used to bow down to the rising sun every morning, praying that the day will be a good one for her and her family.  My mother has a little shrine at home and bows to that shrine every morning as well. 

Praying to the sun and worshiping the mountain… I grew up despising these behaviors of my mother and grandmother as superstitious and primitive.  In today’s scientific, modern days, they are outdated.

When I went back to Japan several years ago, I decided to accompany my mother to visit the shrine.  It was April 1st, and the cherry trees in the shrine property were in full bloom.  When I looked up at Mt. Miwa through the pink clouds of the cherry blossoms, I felt awed. 

The clothes that people wear, the vehicle they used to come here, and the buildings surrounding the mountain have all changed.  But for centuries and centuries, the mountain has welcomed those who come to worship it.

Even with today’s advancement of science and technology, there are so many things that human beings don’t know at all.  One scientist was saying in the interview that the more you research and study the more you realize how little the understanding is of us human beings.

Both my mother and grandmother realized that their existence is tiny compared with the sun, the mountain, or the whole existence in the universe.  Their perception is not blinded by the arrogance of human beings. 

What a fool was I to despise their behavior?  Time for me to be humble…

War and Tea Ceremony

Why Murata Juko is said to be the founder of Wabicha

Image of Murata Juko – Public Domain by Wikimedia

Part of practicing the Japanese tea ceremony is to learn its history.  The name Murata Juko (村田珠光 1422 – 1503) comes up first as a person we should remember.  That he introduced the “wabi” concept to the tea ceremony. 

 “Wabi” is becoming quite popular even among non-Japanese-speaking people.  Often combined with “Sabi”, the word represents something simple, rustic, and profound, a distinct characteristic of Japanese culture.

What happened to tea ceremony as a gamble, you may ask.   Well, there is a slight remnant of tea gambling in the practice today.  Chakabuki 茶歌舞伎, it’s called.  And in the procedure, you try to guess which tea is the same one as you had before.  There is no betting, however.  We only practice the procedure to further deepen our experience of tea. 

When Juko was alive, tea as gambling still existed, practiced among high-ranking aristocrats and samurai.  How come Juko didn’t follow that trend?  Why did he choose to pursue “wabi”cha?  Why his direction had a significant influence on the development of tea ceremony in later years?

I haven’t found any clear answer to this question, so I can only do some research on my own. 

Juko was born in Nara.  At the age of 11 he was sent to a Buddhist temple.  He was there until 20 years old, but for a while after that, it is unknown where exactly he lived and what he was doing

A document that was written years later says he taught then Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa tea ceremony, but recent studies deny it.  But it’s likely he spent some time in Kyoto.

During the Onin no Ran （応仁の乱 1467 – 1477）, Juko is said to have gone back to Nara and lived in a humble hut serving tea. 

The following is my speculation.   

Onin no Ran is a civil war that lasted as long as 11 years.  This civil war started as a dispute over who would become the next shogun. 

Historians still debate today why it involved so many samurai and why it had to last that long.  One monk who lived in that era wrote in his diary, “No matter how hard I try, I still don’t understand why this horrible war had to happen.”

During the war, so many temples, shrines, and palaces in Kyoto, including Daitokuji, where Shuko is believed to have practiced Zen under Ikkyu, a famous master, were burnt to the ground. 

When people in Kyoto say “the last war,” they often refer to Onin no Ran, not World War II.  That’s how horrible the collective memory of this war was.  Buildings were razed. Lives were ruined. The war affected every class of people.

Sitting in the tearoom, people might have contemplated their own dire circumstances and how fragile their lives were, instead of partying and gambling.  In my opinion, Onin no Ran’s impact on people’s mindset towards the practice of tea was profound.  Juko was no exception, in my guess.

One of the very few historical traces of Juko is a record kept by Daitoku-ji Temple.  In memory of the thirteenth anniversary of his Zen master Ikkyu’s death, Juko contributed money for the rebuilding of Daitoku-ji in 1493.  

3 Basic Elements of a Beautiful Flower Arrangement

Don’t forget line, mass, and color!

Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa

Beautiful flowers do not always make beautiful ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement).

Sofu Teshigahara

When creating an Ikebana arrangement, there are three basic elements that you want to keep in mind: Line, Mass, and Color.

Line

Straight, curved, twirling… Nature provides tree branches and flower stems with countless different shapes of lines.  For Ikebana, you want to make the best use of these interesting lines in your arrangement.

If you place the line upright, you are creating something vertical in shape.  Place it sideways, your ikebana spreads horizontally. 

Looking at how the leaves and flowers are growing on the branch, you can see from which direction it was enjoying the sunlight for its growth. The side where the sunlight was shining on the leaves, we recognize it as the front of the branch.  Also, you can tell from which side to which side the branch was growing.

Place the branch with the tip on top, you can feel the energy going up.  Place it with the tip down, the energy flow seems downward. 

Facing all the front leaves towards you, then the branch is facing you.  Turn around, and if you see only the back of the leaves, then the branch is showing you its back. 

With only one branch, you can express so many things; direction, energy flow, and movement (up or down?).  That’s because the branch has a life!

Use two branches.  However you place these two branches, the space between the two becomes the surface.  Remember the geometry class in high school? 

With the third branch, you add depth to your Ikebana.  It’s like sculpture.  Your canvas is the three-dimensional space in front of you. 

Lines determine the basic structure of your Ikebana arrangement.

Mass

When you take a look at one branch, you notice that there are abundant leaves in some parts, and you see barely any leaves in other parts. Similarly, there are some flowers that have massive volumes of flowers like hydrangea, and others that have sparse flowers here and there, like cherry blossoms. 

The massive volume gives you a strong impression, and sparsity gives you a gentle impression. 

When creating an Ikebana arrangement, you want to utilize this variety of mass (or volume) and sparsity (lack of mass or volume) to make it interesting. 

Place some volume in one part and add some sparsity on the other.  Then you are adding a rhythm to your arrangement.  Yes, Ikebana can be similar to music!

Color

Can you imagine how boring it would be if nature came with only black and white?  Thankfully, there are flowers in every single color you can imagine.  Leaves have countless shades of green! 

You want to make best use of the colors that nature provides you in your Ikebana arrangement. 

Place vivid red color flowers right next to the deep, shiny green leaves if you want to make a strong statement.  The high color contrast combination is effective. 

If you want to give a harmonious, gentle, and soft impression on your arrangement, use similar, pastel colors. 

Line, Mass, and Color… The fun part of learning Ikebana is how you can improve by utilizing three elements.  I hope you will keep these three elements next time you make an arrangement!

How Many Moon Poems in Hyakunin Issyu?

There are 12 out of 100!

Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa

Moon is a mystery to me.  Most of the time when the moon is shining in the sky, I’m asleep.  With the convenience of electricity, I no longer have to depend on the moonlight to study or read at night. 

So whenever I read poems written by ancient people, I’m awed by their close attention to the moon.  Before the sky was invaded by artificial brightness, the moon must have been much more intimate in people’s lives. 

Hyakunin Isshu (百人一首）is a classical Japanese anthology of one hundred waka poems by one hundred poets compiled by Fujiwara no Teika (藤原定家　1162 – 1241).  The selection ranges from as old as the one written by Emperor Tenji (626 – 672) to Teika’s contemporary. 

I’m not a competitive player of Hyakunin Isshu card game, but I can still recite some of the poems.

Here is a list of 12 poems in Hyakunin Isshu that read about the moon.  The English translation is according to William N. Porter which is published in 1909.

Since I only memorized them in Japanese, it’s a great opportunity to refamiliarize these poems in English translation. Here you go!

7/100 阿倍仲麻呂 – Abe no Nakamaro
天の原ふりさけ見れば春日なる　三笠の山に出でし月かも
WHILE gazing up into the sky,
  My thoughts have wandered far;
Methinks I See the rising moon
  Above Mount Mikasa
  At far-off Kasuga

21/100 素性法師 – Sosei Hoshi
いま来むと言ひしばかりに長月の　有明の月を待ち出でつるかな
THE moon that shone the whole night through
  This autumn moon I see,
As here I wait thy well-known step,
  For thou didst promise me—
  ‘I’ll surely come to thee.’

23/100 大江千里 – Ooe no Chisato
月見ればちぢにものこそ悲しけれ　わが身一つの秋にはあらねど
THIS night the cheerless autumn moon
  Doth all my mind enthrall;
But others also have their griefs,
  For autumn on us all
  Hath cast her gloomy pall. 

30/100　壬生忠岑 – Mibu no Tadamine
有明のつれなく見えし別れより　暁ばかり憂きものはなし
I HATE the cold unfriendly moon,
  That shines at early morn;
And nothing seems so sad and grey,
  When I am left forlorn,
  As day’s returning dawn.

31/100 　坂上是則 – By Saka-no-Uye no Korenori
朝ぼらけ有明の月と見るまでに　吉野の里に触れる白雪
SURELY the morning moon, I thought,
  Has bathed the hill in light
But, no; I see it is the snow
  That, falling in the night,
  Has made Yoshino white.

    36/100　清原深養父 – Kiyohara no Fukayabu
    夏の夜はまだ宵ながら明けぬるを　雲のいづこに月宿るらむ　
    TOO short the lovely summer night,
      Too soon ‘tis passed away,
    I watched to see behind which cloud
      The moon would chance to stay,
      And here’s the dawn of day!

    57/100　紫式部 – Murasaki Shikibu
    めぐりあひて見しやそれとも分かぬ間に　雲隠れにし夜半の月かな
    I WONDERED forth this moonlight night,
      And some one hurried by;
    But who it was I could not see,–
      Clouds driving o’er the sky
      Obscured the moon on high..

    59/100　赤染衛門 – Akazoe Emon
    やすらはで寝なましものを小夜更けて　かたぶくまでの月を見しかな
    WAITING and hoping for thy step,
      Sleepless in bd I lie,
    All through the night, until the moon,
      Leaving her post on high,
      Slips sideways down the sky.

    68/100 三条院 – Sanjo In
    心にもあらでうき世に長らへば　恋しかるべき夜半の月かな　
    IF in this troubled world of ours
      I still must linger on,
    My only friend shall be the moon,
      Which on my sadness shone,
      When other friends are gone.

    79/100　左京大夫顕輔 – Sakyo no Taiu Aki-suke
    秋風にたなびく雲の絶え間より　もれ出づる月の影のさやけさ
    SEE how the wind of autumn drives
      The clouds to left and right,
    While in between the moon peeps out,
      Dispersing with her light
      The darkness of the night.

    81/100　後徳大寺左大臣 – Go Tokudai-ji Sadaijin
    ほととぎす鳴きつる方をながむれば　まだ有明の月ぞ残れる
    THE cuckoo’s echo dies away,
      And lo! The branch is bare
    I only see the morning moon,
      Whose light is fading there
     Before the daylight’s glare. 

    86/100　西行法師 – Saigyo Hoshi
    嘆けとて月やはものを思はする　かこち顔なるわが涙かな　
    O’ERCOME with pity for this world,
      My tears obscure my sight;
    I wonder, can it be the moon
      Whose melancholy light
      Has saddened me to-night?

     Which poem is your favorite?

    Source: A Hundred Verses from Old Japan (The Hyakunin-Isshu) translated by William N. Porter (1909) – Sacred Texts

    What’s the State of Mind When Making Sweets

    In response to Dancing Elephants Prompt 18 of 52

    Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa

    Can you guess what these objects are? 

    How long do you think it took me to make these nine objects?

    A young friend of mine asked me to serve her a bowl of tea.  She was battling cancer, going through a series of chemotherapy, while raising two little kids.    I’d be delighted, I responded.

    What can I do to give her the best experience?  I decided, why not make sweets, the appetizer and the companion for a bowl of Matcha green tea, myself rather than buying!

    Having never made this type of sweets, I asked my teacher for advice.  She recommended this YouTube video, so I decided to follow its instruction.

    The day before the tea gathering, following the video, I prepared ingredients for the sweets: white bean paste and black bean paste. 

    I colored portions of the white bean paste in pink, orange, yellow, blue, and purple.  I stacked the white, colored, white again, and black bean paste.  Then I shaped it like a ball, wrapping the black bean paste with the outer layer of white bean paste.

    Then time to engrave the surface of the ball shape sweets, using a toothpick. One line at a time.  First you carve four lines to create the shape of the cross.  Then you carve in the middle of the two lines to divide the space into eight.  Then again divide it into 16. 

    Switch the side of the toothpick, and make a slit in between the lines in the different direction. Carve the lines deep enough to show the colored portion, but not too deep to show the black bean paste. 

    The moment my mind meandered and started to think about something different, the tip of the toothpick meandered, too.  In order to carve straight, I had to empty my mind.  It was meditative.  My mind and my hands were in harmony. 

    Yes, it was a tedious process.  It took me three hours to make these nine pieces from start to finish.   But I felt good.  The next day my friend enjoyed the sweets.

    Almost six months on, my friend is cancer free.  Maybe my sweets helped her a little bit?

    When Your Mother Becomes Your Daughter

    Now it’s my turn to take care of her

    Photo by RepentAnd SeekChristJesus on Unsplash

    “Are you having enough vegetables?”

    “Are you following the doctor’s instructions?”

    “Don’t forget to go to the bank!”

    “Be careful when crossing the street by bicycle.”

    Those were my mother’s words I would often hear on the phone, when I started living alone, to go to college.  Mother, I’m not a little girl anymore.  Treat me as an adult, was my response.  To my mother, however, I was still her daughter who needed her care.

    Forty years later, living thousands of miles apart, my mother and I video chat almost every day.

    Now it’s my mother’s turn to hear words like those stated above from me.

    Mother, it sounds strange, but I’m kind of happy to be able to treat you like my child.  Now I’m able to pay you back at least some of the abundant love you have given me. 

    Let me keep on treating you as if you were my daughter, the longer, the better…

    I Stopped Weighing Myself

    And that was the best way to lose weight and keep it for 30 years

    Photo by i yunmai on Unsplash

    In my teens and twenties, I was always overweight, by the Japanese standard anyway. 

    I had a hard time finding good-looking skirts and pants in my size.  I hated my body shape, wished to be skinnier, weighed myself every day and night, got depressed if I gained half a pound, skipped breakfast, and got depressed again if the scale was not showing any sign of improvement.  For a while, I was in the state of eating too much and throwing up right away (is it called bulimia?). 

    Then I turned 30. One day I told myself.  “Let’s stop weighing myself.  I will listen to my body.  I will eat as much as I feel like eating.  If I feel full, I will stop eating.” 

    Listening to my own body… That was the best decision I ever made. 

    Soon I stopped overeating and going to the bathroom right away.  Whatever the kilograms or pounds, I threw away the number to describe my weight from the primary place in my memory pool.  I was sick of creating an emotional rollercoaster every day by looking at the numbers.

    Rather, I started touching my tummy, my thighs, arms, wherever in my body to give me some indication of my body weight.  If I feel a little more volume of fat than before, I told myself, “Maybe you don’t need much food,” then I ate less.

    In the last thirty years, I wonder how many times I stepped on a weighing scale at home.  I have a scale, but now I use it to weigh our suitcases before going on a trip, not my body.   

    I can still wear the same jeans I bought over ten years ago.  Once a year I step on a scale at the clinic for my annual physical checkup.  My doctor hasn’t raised a red flag on the number it spits out.    

    I’m not a fashion model.  My thighs are still pretty substantial.  But I trust my own senses rather than a machine to tell me if I’m overweight or not.  I want to be in control of my physical status. 

    Zen Master Muso Kokushi Didn’t Approve of Tea Gambling

    14th century Japan was wild

    Image of Muso Kokushi : Public Domain – Wiki Media

    Out of the thousands of Buddhist temples in Kyoto, both Tenryuji Temple and Saihoji Temple are among the most famous for the beauty of their gardens.  Steve Jobs used to visit Saihoji Temple, now well known for its beautiful moss garden, quite often with his family. 

    Zen Master Muso Kokushi (夢窓国師 1275 – 1351) designed both gardens.  It is said that Saihoji Temple’s garden designed by Muso Kokushi is the oldest Japanese rock garden called Kare Sansui (枯山水). 

    Muso Kokushi was a highly respected Zen Master, and mentored Ashikaga Takauji (足利尊氏 1305 – 1358), the first Shogun in Ashikaga Shogunate and his brother Ashikaga Tadayoshi (足利直義 1307 – 1352). 

    In the dialogue between Tadayoshi, Muso Kokushi criticized sharply about then faddish tea gambling.  Muso Kokushi himself loved the custom of drinking Matcha, not as a means for gambling, but as a useful tool to deepen his Zen practice. 

    Muso Kokushi saw something in common, something spiritual, among the practice of Zen, Japanese rock garden, and the ritual of serving Matcha.

    Source: Muchu Mondou (夢中問答)