The Noguchi Sculpture Garden was off the beaten path in Mure Japan. When our group arrived it was us, and the workers who guard the giant art pieces. After the no pictures, no touching, no food or drink warnings we were escorted to the sculpture gardens by two guides.These stones were moved, carved, cut, sawed, and chiseled into the most valuable rock in this country.

The story is that the Artist would walk through the garden daily reworking and editing. Noguchi’s notes are still on some pieces. Are they finished or not? It’s hard to tell. Rhythmic but random sound of steel tools hitting stone balance the silence of the sight. Down the path, the whine of diamond blades cutting stone, turning the mountain into art created a peaceful and powerful place.

The Noh stage in Oomoto. The pine tree symbolizes the connection to Heaven

Unlike Kabuki, Noh drama is dependent on the audience’s imagination to complete the story. It is subtle and Haiku-like. To do this though, you need to understand the prose of Noh and its nuance. Even with no spoken word, the language is elusive, mysterious, and haunting.

We all had a brief Noh training with Manjiro Tatsumi, the 5th generation head of the Hosho school of Noh and considered by the Japanese government an Intangible Cultural Treasure. He taught us ways to move our bodies in slow motion with quickly changing tempos and bursts of unexpected movements. Seven steps forward…forearm slowly meeting a bowed head depicting sadness…fast turn to the right, heavy step at the end…head jerk to the ceiling and then to the floor for anger. After the training, Sensei brought out five treasured masks.

He explained that the masks are in such good shape, not because they are stored well, but because they are well used.They have taken on a life of their own.He offered to let the ones that stepped forward a chance to try one on. It’s close to Halloween, so why pass up an opportunity to wear a 250-year-old anything?

Putting on the mask was an entrance to a spirit world, unfamiliar and disorienting, it felt like the plane of the stage was tilted and I was falling on my feet. The eye holes are tiny, adding to the feeling that you have left the room. Then Sensei told us we were now going to perform what we learned for the rest of the group. OH NO, a Noh master’s trick. There is Noh way you could do this. These skills take decades to be decent at even if you had a predispositioned Noh gene in the family.

After our embarrassing performance the master told us that he tries to block the energy of the centuries-old mask otherwise he goes into a trance with the power of its history.
Maybe he should have mentioned that in the training.

Oomoto Japan October 25th, 2017

“In houses where gardeners come and go, there is no need for a doctor. The garden is essential to our life and not something we can do without”
From Walking the Kiso Road, William Scott Wilson

I live in a special place, but I know it is not a normal place.
The things that we gripe about are pretty minor: traffic, homelessness, fires, the weather-really?
Japan seems different, closer to the edge of the planet. Earthquakes, earthquakes followed by a tsunami, a nuclear plant disaster, wars and a very bad neighbor are a start. Add to that the prediction that Mt. Fuji will definitely erupt in the next 10 years, daily measurement of radiation levels in Tokyo, warnings about mercury levels in fish: “Don’t eat Maguro sashimi more than once a month”. And Lan, the typhoon expected this coming Sunday, the day of their national Election.Some of our travel companions have canceled or postponed their flights. We head to Osaka today on the Shinkansen. Then on to Kyoto on Sunday if we stay on track. It seems that all of these calamities in a country slightly smaller than California are unlikely.

No wonder they need seven Gods to protect them. Or maybe it’s the concept of Shoganai (rough translation, it can’t be helped) that gets them through the day. Is this country in some kind of karmic debt? Are we that much luckier than the Japanese? Can you imagine how much Golden Staters would have to complain about if they had half of these problems?

There is so much unfamiliarity here that it’s best not to try to understand it and just embrace the foreignness. I like being on the edge of the universe, it’s a little unsettling and exciting. And being here helps me see how lucky I am.
God Bless California.

Tokyo Japan October 20th, 2017

February 2018 Update: We have had our share of disaster here with the Thomas fire and resulting mudflow that hit on January 9th. Montecito is severely injured but people have a bit of a Shogunai attitude, recognizing that life is more important than property. And having a positive attitude helps tremendously in the process of healing and rebuilding.

 

History is fiction written by the survivors

Vicki’s Grandparents have always been a mystery to me. I wondered why at the turn of the last century they would leave Kumamoto Japan to start a new life in America. They weren’t poor or wealthy either. They spoke no English, Grandfather never worked and was very well dressed in the only picture we have of him. Grandmother made and sold tofu out of a storefront and was a local midwife in Santa Barbara. She also was well off enough to make steamer trips to Japan and buy property in Santa Barbara.

Grandfather never went back to Japan. He died in the internment camp dedicated to the most difficult internees, the ones that the US thought could be Japanese collaborators. His greatest crimes were he hated desert snakes and wanted to return to Japan.

I developed some theories that might explain the migration.

1. Taxation was increased in the countryside which included Kumamoto, to support the building of cities. This encouraged those citizens to look for greener pastures.

2. There was a war with Manchuria on the horizon and Grandfather left to avoid the fighting.

We were fortunate to have a great guide for our second day, Patrick was well versed in history, culture, politics and has lived in Japan for 45 years. During lunch, we posed the riddle to Patrick. With no hesitation, he suggested that Grandfather may have been Samurai. Many of them were blacklisted after their leader was killed protesting the removal of rice stipends in Kumamoto a few years before he left. The hint was Grandfather had never worked. Patrick has promised to send us a reading list that may shed more light on the riddle.

 

 

 

 

Statue of Saigō Takamori, the last Samurai in Ueno Park. He was the Samurai who may have been the leader of Grandfather’s Clan

Tokyo Japan October 19th, 2017

 

 

Joanne, a friend in Santa Barbara recommended a Ghost Tour here in Tokyo. We met up with our tour guide, Lilly Fields, obviously her ghost name. She explicitly requested no pictures of her because she has a day job and doesn’t want her employer to know she’s a ghost hunter. I think, yeah, right, we are in the presence of a real ghost that probably won’t show up on film and then we would all freak out. Not good for business. How do you get your money back from a ghost? She warned us that we would be spending 3 hours walking in the rain looking for spooky things.You know on ghost tours you don’t usually see a ghost, but it’s definitely better marketing than calling it a History Tour.

I’m interested in those moments when we leave reality behind and experience something outside of our realm.  When we stepped through the gates of the Shinto shrine I felt a rush of unexplained peacefulness. Not really a chicken skin moment, more like a wash of warmth and well being.

As we were leaving the Shrine there were two different stairways out. Ghost girl says to choose the one you feel most comfortable with. I chose the curved one to the side. Ghost girl says that was the women’s stairway and I was probably a woman in a past life. Not a surprise to me.

During a coffee break, we talked about the underbelly of Japan and those things that are left unspoken. The Japanese might describe this as Honne & Tatemae, loosely translated “true opinion” and “public face.” Tatemae is the idea that it’s often necessary to hide your true opinion in order to ensure social harmony. I thought of the author, Alex Kerr and asked her if she was familiar with his writings. Turns out they are friends and she passed on an invitation to him to ghost walk with her. A funny thing though. Lilly still never told us her real name to pass on to Alex.

Fortunately, Vicki didn’t follow instructions and took a picture of Lilly and she’s there. Proof that she’s mortal. Or is it? Maybe Alex will be able to verify her existence once and for all. I just hope the photo doesn’t disappear.

Update after our visit with Alex Kerr.  He has never seen this woman but she looks a little like his long-dead great-grandmother when she was younger.