Sunday - Finals Week
The week basically started last Sunday when I went to a Japanese art exhibit with some friends from the next town over. The exhibit featured scrolls from the Edo period (let’s just say 200 years ago) and wood block prints from the same and more recent eras*.
The scrolls and the whole experience were extremely delightful. My friends and I were quieted within the first ten minutes of being there because we were apparently discussing a little too fervently, but I was really inspired to learn more about Japanese history, and especially kanji (Chinese characters) from this visit. We spent a lot of time trying to decipher what the scrolls were about from the kanji explanations. Furthermore, I was really excited about the fact that a lot of the woodblock prints depicted scenes from when Commander Perry arrived in Edo (now Tokyo) in 1953, bringing along with him (and his famous black ships) the dawn of westernization and the end of the closed-society Japan was famous for. I found the old scenes of Japanese women in kimono (traditional dress, now the national costume) mingling with the western women so romantic, and so personal because it is also symbolic of my experiences in this country so far. I just finished reading Kwaidan (or strange stories), a collection of supernatural and old wives tales from Japan (maybe originally from China), and was probably a little too excited to recognize traces of these stories in the supernational paintings. The shoji (or rice-paper sliding door) shadow-puppet drawings were also fun. I think I could do a really cool lesson on them, or at least draw some comparisons between children’s finger puppets in the west and these ancient bemusements.
After the art show, we spent some time enjoying the lovely afternoon weather and joined a pick-up baseball game with some young Japanese boys. It was fun for us, but was probably funnier for them. Instead of going home, we made our way to what turned out to be THE MOST EXPENSIVE karaoke place ever, but belting out some tunes while jumping around on the couches was a good way to end a pleasant afternoon.
*Just a note here: the 'Japanese way' of counting years is via eras, and an era generally begins when a new emperor gains power. So for example, we are currently in the Heisted period, which started in 1989. So instead of saying it is 2006, I actually write 18 for the year on many forms (since it has been 18 years since the current era began). I was born in Showa 56. And yes, it does kind of suck if you are bad at arithmetic (although no one seems to complain…).
*Japanese wood block prints: http://www.asia-art.net/japan_prints.html
The scrolls and the whole experience were extremely delightful. My friends and I were quieted within the first ten minutes of being there because we were apparently discussing a little too fervently, but I was really inspired to learn more about Japanese history, and especially kanji (Chinese characters) from this visit. We spent a lot of time trying to decipher what the scrolls were about from the kanji explanations. Furthermore, I was really excited about the fact that a lot of the woodblock prints depicted scenes from when Commander Perry arrived in Edo (now Tokyo) in 1953, bringing along with him (and his famous black ships) the dawn of westernization and the end of the closed-society Japan was famous for. I found the old scenes of Japanese women in kimono (traditional dress, now the national costume) mingling with the western women so romantic, and so personal because it is also symbolic of my experiences in this country so far. I just finished reading Kwaidan (or strange stories), a collection of supernatural and old wives tales from Japan (maybe originally from China), and was probably a little too excited to recognize traces of these stories in the supernational paintings. The shoji (or rice-paper sliding door) shadow-puppet drawings were also fun. I think I could do a really cool lesson on them, or at least draw some comparisons between children’s finger puppets in the west and these ancient bemusements.
After the art show, we spent some time enjoying the lovely afternoon weather and joined a pick-up baseball game with some young Japanese boys. It was fun for us, but was probably funnier for them. Instead of going home, we made our way to what turned out to be THE MOST EXPENSIVE karaoke place ever, but belting out some tunes while jumping around on the couches was a good way to end a pleasant afternoon.
*Just a note here: the 'Japanese way' of counting years is via eras, and an era generally begins when a new emperor gains power. So for example, we are currently in the Heisted period, which started in 1989. So instead of saying it is 2006, I actually write 18 for the year on many forms (since it has been 18 years since the current era began). I was born in Showa 56. And yes, it does kind of suck if you are bad at arithmetic (although no one seems to complain…).
*Japanese wood block prints: http://www.asia-art.net/japan_prints.html
posted by Brenda Ann Elizabeth McKinney @ 1:32 AM
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