1992: Kanreki

December 5. 1992
Kyoto

A few weeks ago, I traveled north in Kyoto Prefecture with my assistant of the last 2 years, Koichi Kimura, to the rural village where Hiroyuki Shindo, friend, artist and indigo dyer, lives and works in a 200-year-old thatched farmhouse. The day was bright and sunny with the fall colors at their most wonderful — reds and yellows of the maples providing a counterpoint to the deep green of the cedars. The bright orange persimmons, on otherwise barren trees, contrasted sharply against the brilliant blue sky. The occasion was an indigo/shibori workshop for a group of westerners on a tour of Japan prior to an International Shibori Symposium in Nagoya. While Koichi stayed on to help with the workshop, I guided a small group around the several villages in the area. It is always exciting to see Japan again through the eyes of the first-time visitor. The houses. the barren rice fields. the winter gardens full of abundant vegetables, the friendly villagers along the way, the ringing of the local temple bell, all heighted the experience for me. The drive back to Kyoto the next morning along a narrow mountain road with the frosty mists hanging low along the river bottoms muting the fall colors was memorable. I realized how seldom I get into the countryside and what I miss by not making the effort more often.

Since my arrival here in late June so much has happened that it seems somewhat like a video on fast forward. July brought several visitors including Cindy Howard, a UGA grad of many years ago, Bea Coleman, artist and professor from LA., and longtime friend Shigeko Spear, back to visit her family and for a solo show in Tokyo. She stayed for over a week in Kyoto and helped me a great deal with my research on clamp board resist dyeing (itajime shibori). We were very successful in unearthing a good deal of information on the process and its history. Much remains to be done but I now have the resources to follow up in the future. I was even fortunate to collect some of the boards used in the process at a local flea market. Subsequently. I began designs on two new series of works that were in my show in November. I was fortunate to have Koichi’s help several days each week for the time I was in Kyoto this year. Next March he will come to Athens to stay with me and Moriyo while he studies English and weaving for a couple of years.

Early in August I went to Tokyo for a week to help Shigeko hang her show of printed panels and mixed media work. I was also able to see a number of exhibitions, take in a kabuki performance, and browse the bookstores of Kanda. I stayed with one of the “alums” from my Athens house, Masahiro Motoyama, who is now an architect in Yokohama. Back to Kyoto for some intense sessions in the studio and then an Obon trip to Karuizawa, the famed mountain resort popular with the media stars, politicians, the Imperial family and almost everyone else in Japan! At the end of the month, I spent a week in Naha, Okinawa, with Moriyo, my present Glen-and-house caretaker who was home for a visit, after 4 years in Athens, to celebrate the completion of his BA. I was, indeed, treated like visiting royalty with parties, outings, day trips with his family and friends. Moriyo has a wonderful family and a devoted group of friends, “The Rangers”, from his Jr. High days, all of whom took very good care of me. Just this week I received a care package of local Naha papaya and other Okinawan specialties from Moriyo’s parents. He, by the way, is back in my house working on his MA in linguistics and will continue his tender loving care of Mother (when she is with us), house and me.

The first 10 days in September Koichi and I were busy in the studio completing the printing of a series of three kimono with greatly enlarged figures of animals from the famous satiric 12th century emaki “Scroll of Frolicking Animals and People”. One holds the images of 2 monkeys bathing (Koichi and I were both born in saru (monkey) years in the Chinese calendar), a frog in triumph as sumo star and the defeated rabbit whom I have up righted so he appears to be frolicking in great JOY instead of on his ears in defeat.

In September I traveled to Bangkok for a few days and then to Malaysia for almost a month. My visit to Bangkok was the 2nd one for me and I was thrilled once again to experience the palaces and temples. Not only are the forms of the architecture exotic in the extreme, but the surfaces are equally so. With gold in abundance in many forms, relief ceramic mosaics, mirror work, relief sculpture in polychrome, plus other painting and carving — an endless variety of surface embellishment. Add to this the flower garlands and special flower offerings, the incense and candles and the effect is overpowering.

Malaysia was a first visit for me, filled with stimulation and excitement — from the people, the food and the environment, natural and manmade. I was especially interested in photographing architecture there (as well as in Bangkok) for use in future work — recording the sense of place that I feel in my life and travels. I had superb contacts with USIS at the Embassy in Kuala Lumpur that provided me with access to many institutions and persons who were very helpful — museums, preservation groups, universities, and artists. I knew I was in for a cultural treat as the country is a mix of Malay Islamic, Chinese, Indian and European cultures with English as a commonly spoken language. The mosques, Chinese temples and shophouses, Hindu and Sikh temples, British colonial buildings of Hollywood/Moorish design all together where quite overwhelming in the cities of Kuala Lumpur, Melaka and Georgetown (Penang Island). The traditional Malay houses in the villages as well as the older Sultan’s palaces are important symbols of the culture. Most overwhelming, however, were the Chinese baroque temples and clan houses in Penang. The dragon dominates — from the rooftops to those in day-glow pink writhing around giant joss (good fortune) sticks of incense. Candle, oil lamp and incense smoke fills the air as people move to and fro. I have hundreds of prints and slides to study and sort through before getting a focus on the total experience. Plans are in the early stages for a solo show in Kuala Lumpur for next summer with time to explore the weaving and dyeing on the east coast which I did not visit this year.

After return from my travels in early October, the big push was on to complete all the work for my solo show here in November. In addition to the kimono, I began a new series with the theme of “broken city” which is an attempt to comment on the loss of traditional architecture here in Kyoto. Birds’ eye views of the tile roofed city were torn into parts and reassembled with resulting dominant cracks and fissures. These works were printed on special fabric which I designed and had woven here last year with a tile roof motif in the black ground and a grey woven grid. I was very pleased with the works in this series. Other works included were tile roof abstractions printed on antique black obi fabric.

The big event in October was the celebration of my 60th birthday with two special parties. This occasion is called kanreki here (meaning turning back the calendar to babyhood) with the honoree adorned in a red silk hat (beret-like) and vest — red being the color associated with babies: aka-chan (“little red one”). The gala 1st party on the 28th at a restaurant with 25 friends, good food, many toasts, red roses, red scarf, red cap, speeches and celebration in abundance. The second party was given by Koichi and his university friends that I have known for several years now. They went all out — cooking special foods, a cake, gifts, including a red sweater vest, and much frivolity. It was all enough partying to last me for some years to come.

November was the time to complete the final touches for my solo show here at GalleryGallery. The opening was attended by many friends here and some of the tour members mentioned earlier. The three kimono (Part I) were hung floating in a separate all white room while the wall panels (Part II) were all together in the second space (see the enclosed card for a detail of a two-panel work on black obi fabric). I later gave a slide lecture on my work that filled the gallery space to overflowing.

Following a traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner given for ten friends, my time draws near to leave Kyoto once again and the mixed emotions that always descend upon me are here again. It is always difficult to leave the studio, dear friends, and beautiful Kyoto, but I have my family, dear friends and Athens beckoning me back to the other half of my life. The way home will include short stop overs in Honolulu, Sunnyvale. CA, where Page and Jeanne now live, and a longer one in Wisconsin to see Mother and escort her back to Athens to for the Holidays and the rest of the winter. Page and Jeanne will be with us, as well as with her family in Atlanta, plus Moriyo and additional Japanese guests. It should be a festive time.

I send along my very best wishes for a joyous Christmas and a healthy and happy New Year of the Chicken!