To write about Japan again...
Japanese Pendulum
Almost any westerner that wishes to write about Japan is in search of a "definition" of Japan.
Most of the times, this definition cannot escape the opposition between the "authentic" Japan of untouched beauty that was and that is not exactly anymore and the Japan of rush hours, nervous music and the thousand colors of synthetic clothes. Is there a way, a dialectic, to make peace between these two Japan-s ? After all, it is the same history that includes the zen temples and the poormen's casinos named pachinkos. But, maybe, trying to do that would equal to being too philosophical about it and not enough Japanese. To desperately want a simple coherence in history is sometimes not the best choice.
A Japanese potter (and a famous artist) once wrote :
Swinging like a pendulum I proceed,
Never lingering in one place,
Let wandering be the true state of being
— Raku Kichizaemon XV
As Kichizaemon suggests, we may be no more than pendulums : we swing between two points, sometimes on many plans at the same time, but always drawing direct lines. I tend to think that people and cultures are like humans : they also are pendulums. And Japan is no exception. The european dialectic always hope for a third way but this work might be vain : here, in Japan, no one wants to get out of the schizophrenia. They prefer to wander. It is what has allowed samuraïs to test their new swords on prisoners just before they went for a peaceful tea ceremony.
From ceramic to ceremony and back
My passion for the Japanese ceramic and, above all, for the tea ceremony, have led me into several internships with craftsmen and tea masters in Japan. This blog publishes some episodes and bits that may interest you. I hope that these articles might give you the desire to meet the people I met and to discover their art. They are all warm and welcoming people. Behind the austere face of Japan conservatism very often lies a happy and heart-felt smiles. But which Japanese connaisseur or dream seller would tell you about this warmth ? Most of them are too obsessed with the art of good manners and a man-made beauty that they pretend to be out of reach for most humans. They would never speak about this. It's like asking a priest about what lies behind Jesus' loin cloth.
I do not intend to make a faithful or dogmatic account nor a "dreamy" speech of what I see and learn here. The "authentic" Japan seems to me like a dead end, just like the glossy kawai shown in some fancy photo books.
My first subject, the ceramic art and buisness of Sasaki Kyoshitsu, will certainly need some technical details but I would rather tell you right now : what I love in Japan, it is mostly the softness of its air and the fresh feeling of its daily life. And, as difficult as it may seem, in truth, that is what I would like to talk about : a wisp of quiet wind, a human detail that says a lot about somebody or the difficult delight of trying one's self to a new art just for the pleasure of finding again the joy of the small intimate art of creation.
O raku ni dôzô, let's be simple.
My first subject, the ceramic art and buisness of Sasaki Kyoshitsu, will certainly need some technical details but I would rather tell you right now : what I love in Japan, it is mostly the softness of its air and the fresh feeling of its daily life. And, as difficult as it may seem, in truth, that is what I would like to talk about : a wisp of quiet wind, a human detail that says a lot about somebody or the difficult delight of trying one's self to a new art just for the pleasure of finding again the joy of the small intimate art of creation.
O raku ni dôzô, let's be simple.
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