Farming benihana　in Yamagata

Furusato/Hometown is one of my favorite programs on NHK only because it features small towns in Japan or the small town aspects found in the city. The focus is usually on a specialty craft, food, or other characteristics that the town may be known for. I enjoy seeing how people make a living outside of the city and I really get interested when the topic is related to fibers. Recently, a program was on growing and processing Benibana or Safflower. One of the many products derived from this plant during the Edo period was the dye. The red produced came to be known as “Edo red.” It’s harvested in in July in the Yamagata area. The flower head is picked carefully (it’s a prickly), then the flower petals are ground and wrung, turning it into cakes or beni-mochi. It takes time to produce it, but eventually it’s used for dyeing. It looks challenging, but I’d love to try it. I’d especially like to dye with it.

In  Omohide Poro Poro (おもひで　ぽろぽろ), by Studio Ghibli, the main character spends time on a small Benibana farm in Yamagata. It’s a gentle story that takes you into the inaka (countryside) and life in an old farmhouse.

A line from Basho:

まゆはきを　もかげに　して　べにの　はな。

mayuhaki o omokage ni shite beni no hana

Reminiscent of eyebrow brushes　 safflower　blossoms.

** Just a note:  previously I said that Omohide Poro Poro was by Miyazaki.  I can’t find his name associated with it, but it was produced by Studio Ghibli which also produces Miyazaki’s films.

Hotaru (fireflies) are still around even into the late evening, although they are not so abundant. I am still captive to their little lantern lights.

Sei Shonagon in her Pillow Book, (Makura no Shoushi /枕草子) mentions them in her description of summer:

「夏は夜、月の 頃はさらなり、闇もなほ蛍飛びちがひたる、雨などの降るさへをかし。」

Natsu wa yoru, tsuki no koro wa sara nari, yami monaho hotaru tobichiga hitaru, ame nado no furusahe o kashi.

In summer the nights. Not only when the moon shines, but on dark nights too, as the fireflies flit to and fro, and even when it rains, how beautiful it is! 　(translation by Ivan Morris)

Some of the words in this reading are:

(夏) なつ・ natsu - summer, (夜) よる・yoru - night, （月) つき・tsuki - moon, （蛍) ほたる・hotaru - fireflies and （雨）あめ・ame - rain

I’m finding in my research that there are variations in the text (even in Japanese!), but the main idea is still there.

]]> http://itode.wordpress.com/2008/07/21/sei-shonagon%e6%b8%85%e5%b0%91%e7%b4%8d%e8%a8%80/feed/ sofennell http://itode.wordpress.com/2008/07/20/art-speaks-japanese/ http://itode.wordpress.com/2008/07/20/art-speaks-japanese/#comments Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:42:33 +0000 sofennell http://itode.wordpress.com/?p=108

I am about one month away from starting class again. That means I’m in my midsummer. I’ve accomplished a few things on my “list” but it’s time to start thinking about the academic ones as well. My department chair also asked me to think about a few things which involves (if I’m smart) some writing. If I do it early it’ll help in developing my goals for the new school year.

I’ve recently found a curriculum developed in New South Wales with the Japan Foundation, called Art Speaks Japanese. It seems a refreshing perspective from the usual. I really want to bring more of the arts into the classroom and this seems like a good way to do it. It uses images from the Art Gallery of NSW but they are broad enough in topic that students could find similar images on-line or elsewhere if they wanted. It’s always an experiment and it seems we never have enough time to teach what is needed. It goes far too quickly.

I’ve been looking forward to seeing this site and I’ve just received the links. One is for Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson and the other is for my great-uncle Virgil E. Pyles.  Enjoy!

This week and last I’ve been (apart from the shibori & dyeing) writing family a lot about my great-uncle, V. E. Pyles. Another thing, is that Comic-Con is just around the corner (beginning next week) out in San Diego. Usually, I wouldn’t pay any attention to things like that except for the local Anime Convention in my area. I also, like so many kids in this country, grew up with comic books. I did read Superman, Batman, Little Lulu and whatever else I could get my dad to buy at the grand central station in Tokyo on our yearly trek to Lake Nojiri. That train station was access to western things, especially comics. My dad couldn’t afford to buy many, so during the month that we spent at the lake, I’d visit other kids who had huge collections and we’d spend long rainy afternoons absorbed in them (even though we’d reread them hundreds of times). They were delicious times. I owe my delightful afternoons to the man who started it all: Major Malcolm Wheeler- Nicholson. He started New Fun Comics and much more. Nicholson was also a writer of Pulp Fiction. Among many stories that he wrote, one was illustrated by my great-uncle.

Next week, at Comic-Con, Major Wheeler-Nicholson is going to be celebrated along with the history of comic books and their making. Last week, Major Wheeler-Nicholson’s granddaughter got in touch with an interest in my great-uncle because of that small connection. The result has been a revival of interest in my uncle (among my family members). So, I’ve been in touch with my cousins again, not to mention my siblings and my mother. Stories have been passed around, I dug out an old photo album and scanned pictures, and also wrote a short biographical sketch. I feel like he has been thoroughly discussed. If it hadn’t been for this one little communication, it wouldn’t have happened.

At any rate, I thank the Wheeler-Nicholsons for helping to bring that about. I’ve enjoyed our communications and I wish the Wheeler-Nicholson family well and success at the Con. It looks like this is one not to be missed! OK, I wish I could be there too (is Neil Gaiman going to bet there?).

Mokume on the line

Originally uploaded by SOFennell

Friday was Indigo Day. Whenever I work like this, I simply have to dedicate the entire day to it. I didn’t start as early as I’d planned but I started working on the vat around 9 a.m. By the time Beth was arriving (10:30), the vat was ready and I had just tested it with a paper towel strip which was a bright yellow green. It quickly changed to emerald then to blue.

I’d been working on pieces over several weeks, so I had about a dozen items to dye. Beth had never done shibori or indigo dyeing and she’d brought a few items from home. So, after a brief introduction to methods, we started working on our various projects. Beth stitched and clamped, I started on the dyeing process.

I started with soaking the pieces in water for roughly 10 minutes (or more), then squeezed it out before slowly immersing them into the vat (so as not to introduce oxygen into the solution). I dipped them each several times for strong light to dark contrast. In the past, I’ve paid strong attention to soak time, but I didn’t this time. Some pieces did soak for a long while during our lunch break, but most of it went quickly. After dyeing, they were rinsed in another bucket of water, then hung on the line to dry.

As I hung them, the cicadas were droning and that’s one of the aspects of this activity that I love so much, at least in the summer. The combination of the summer heat and humidity, the small breezes, indigo on the line and the cicadas…I don’t need anything else.

I’ve just been included in an Etsy Treasury by CHR Designs. Thank you, CHR! I love those stormy colors.

Since I’m stirring up the vat tomorrow I thought I’d send along a link with some wonderful aizome shibori imagery.

It’s all in Japanese, but sometimes you don’t need words.

mokume5

Originally uploaded by SOFennell

Sometimes the intrigue is in the form that’s created before it’s finally dyed. I’ve been stitching on this for over over a week now and finally finished this aspect of it last night. I tend to put my stitches in first, then draw them up (unlike the ladies in Arimatsu). My fingers don’t have the dexterity and the years of training to handle it the way they do (and I am in awe). I’m also reminded that when these ladies work this way, they’re working on long swaths of fabric. My pieces are minute in comparison.

I’ve been playing with a fairly flat piece here, but I’m seeing other possibilities in this form. A part of me wants to forget my original purpose and just leave it. However, there’s also that other result: the memory of all of this recorded in an image on the fabric. I know I’ll love the piece when it’s finished. On Friday, I’ll mix my “brew” and spend the day dyeing in indigo.

Furoshiki

Originally uploaded by SOFennell

I like working in mokume (もくめ・ 木目). I tend to use it a lot. There’s a soft organic look to it. I prefer to do it by hand as I feel I get the best results that way, but it’s time-consuming. I’ve only played with it on the sewing machine once and got very different results. I like what I got, but I didn’t think it read as Mokume. I need to try it out with other fabrics and compare the two.

木・もくmoku means wood and 目・め・me means “eye” and the two combine to mean “wood grain” or “grain of wood.”

Scroll down a few images for another take on mokume.