1984: Kaki, Kaki & Kiku

November 16, 1984

Dear watakushi no Amerikajin no tomodachi:

Fall in Kyoto is glorious! The days are warm and sunny and the mornings and evenings have a touch of crispness. COLOR radiates in every corner — the golden ginkos line many streets and here and there drop a yellow carpet, cherry trees in pinks and oranges have a fall glory as well a spring one, and then the maples. The maples ARE special. They are in all of the above colors and many more as accents in temple gardens and on the mountain sides. As a result, I have become almost a full-time tourist again spending many days seeking out new wonders and revisiting familiar haunts to experience the magical color.

It’s the season of kaki, kaki and kiku (persimmon, oyster and chrysanthemum). The persimmons are now plentiful in the markets replacing the delicious nashi (Japanese pear). They area special treat and come in a variety of shapes, colors and flavors. The best are a squarish shape, are seedless and sweetly crunchy. Oysters (a different kanji) are in great supply and essential ingredients for seafood donabe dishes cooked at the table. Donabe along with sukiyaki and oden (all cooked at the table) have become my standards for dinners here with friends. The chrysanthemums (a real tongue-twister for the Japanese) are everywhere and are in every shape, color and form. Very popular is a well-trained horizontal boat-shaped, potted plant that is completely covered with blooms, others are exotic specimen plants over a meter tall with a single blossom 20cm in diameter and, most surprising to me, kiku bonsai trained into a wide variety of “tree” shapes and recently on display at Heian Shrine. I’m told that the fall color lasts through November and I plan to enjoy it until the last faded leaf falls on a misty day at Nanzenji.

Early September found me in Tokyo for my solo show at Wacoal Ginza Art Space. I showed the new work in shibori done here in Kyoto for the first time there and got good reactions to it. I spent about 10 days in Tokyo and was able to see many exhibitions in the museums, galleries and department stores as well as the great Tomasaburo Bando in two kabuki plays at Kabukiza plus the Japanese production of CATS!

Back in Kyoto life has been filled with many exciting activities that have kept me very busy. There have been festivals, including one to celebrate the comb and traditional hairstyles. On a visit to the Daisen-in temple at Todaiji I met a Doshisha University student, Takeshi-san, and we have been meeting regularly for dinner, English conversation and jazz listening. He is a business major and jazz pianist and I have been able to hear him play on several occasions. One of them was the opening party for my show at Gallery Juraku here in Kyoto in mid-October. I supervised American-style food, Early Times and jazz piano all contributed to a smashing party that lasted 4 hours instead of the scheduled 2.

A major Expo, Hand ’84 Kyoto, opened here in October, concurrent with GLOVE, with the sub-title, “Handcraft and Neo-traditional Dream”! (This is typical Japanese English and as usual, quite a mystery to native English speakers.) The emphasis is very much on commerce rather that handcraft. Juraku Co. has the best exhibit, on kimono and obi, and Suntory has a great multi-projection and laser show that, to me, was the most exciting event of the Expo. The balance consists of commercial exhibits and a plethora of souvenir shops, which thrive wherever people congregate in Japan. Juraku staged a two-day kimono “Grand Show” (their English) with over 200 models ranging from a review of historical costumes to the “sense up” neo-trad style they are promoting today to keep the faltering kimono/obi industry alive. Quite a performance!

The U.S.I.S. is circulating the American Craft Museum’s (NY) “Art to Wear” exhibition in Asia for 2 years with showings in Sapporo and here in Kyoto. I was asked by the Kyoto American Center to give an introductory lecture in early October to generate interest. They were surprised at the good turnout and I was challenged to get the whole story across. The use of a translator was essential, but it doubled the time making the whole affair, to me, endless. Reaction was positive, but the true test comes when the exhibition opens later this month with a reception at the Heian Shrine. Is Shinto ready for “Art to Wear”?

Immediately after the lecture and opening of my show I left for Tohoku (the north country) with Takeshi-san for a sampling of a different environment and the early fall color. We spent our time around Lake Towada, a deep crater lake, drinking in fall color (and local sake) and hiking along Oirase River which drains from the lake and is strengthened by numerous waterfalls along its length. The color, water, sounds and cool crisp air were very refreshing. The heavy traffic on the road that parallels the river provided the only negative note. We feasted on foods local unknown to us: plants and the small lake trout served as sashimi and various other ways. We had a delightful time at our minshuku (tourist lodgings) where gaikokujin-san Glen was a great curiosity. Takeshi-san made the whole trip a relaxing one for me as he was travel agent and tour leader throughout and indispensable translator. However, he had great difficulty with the Tohoku dialect which was mostly incomprehensible to him. Such is the state of MY Nihongo that I was unaware of this problem. Completely.

One of the purposes of the trip and a real highlight, was a visit to the Sato family in Akita Prefecture — parents, brother and wife, nephews, etc. of Masaki-san, my friend, Nihongo no sensei and current caretaker of my house in Athens. We received the “new tatami mat” treatment for our visit. We were treated to a tour of the area mountain plateau with its hot sulfur springs (and spas), steam vents and mud pots, followed by an endless dinner with the whole family plus friends consisting of the usual special foods and with many local dishes, and then overnight in the “prime parlor” with its family altar and large tokonoma. We had a wonderful, happy, warm and friendly time together due to Takeshi-san’s continuous translation and his own out-reaching personality. This was my second trip to Tohoku and it’s a place I want to return to again.

Life since my return has been filled with a combination of studio work and going from exhibit to temple to shrine and back again. My work now is in another direction from the earlier shibori. I have returned to weaving with fine (maddingly so) silks set at 60 threads per cm (only a 20dent/cm reed, however) – for fine scale explorations that for now are only a first step in the new plan evolving. The fine yarns were provided by a master dyer I met through Hijii-san at Juraku. I have been adopted into the family by now with several visits to his home and invited to his daughter’s Catholic wedding. To watch him work is to experience Japanese magic – like some master chef whose recipes are all in his head. Kawagishi-san can match ANY color in a twinkling. He dips into his dye powder bins with his magic spoon like a sorcerer and adjusts and varies and adjusts again until – presto – an exact match in color. Consequently, I have a subarashii palette of colors to work with, some dyed to my choice.

Other experiences of note: seeing children (ages 3, 5 and 7) visit local shrines, especially Heian, in bright colored kimono often with mothers in kimono also; hiking up through the tunnel of torii of Fushimi Inari Shrine to the mountain top, across and down to the Tofukuji complex several kilometers to the north; visiting Nara to see the annual Shoso-in (8th C Imperial Treasure House) exhibition and the building itself only on view a few weeks each year (for me a Mecca-like pilgrimage); an all day trip to Ohara, site of simple country temples where popular Buddhism began in the 8th C, where the fall color was overwhelming; visits to temples here that are open only for 10 days each fall sharing their gardens and art treasures to a large and appreciative audience.

The fall color here is renowned around the world, but the first extended exposure is beyond expectation, partly due to the delicacy of the color of the Japanese maples and the way they are pruned and partly due to the relationship of the color to the total specific setting. It seems to me that color shadings in Japanese textiles owe a great debt to the shadings, variations and permutations in the fall colors. It is, after a week or two, quite beyond words. How much of this stimulation, I ask myself, can the eye, the mind, soul absorb? One solid green maple in mid-November.

Return from paradise is possible. I will leave Japan on December 8, spending a few days in Hawaii to ease my re-entry into the world of Christmas/USA, UGA in January, 4 more years of Reagan, the NY Times and only 2 or 3 types of tofu. Plans are well underway for a return in June, leading a repeat budget tour expanded to 3 weeks followed by Juraku dyeing classes, studio work and a solo show at Gallery Maronie. I’ll be home in Athens after December 15 and I would love to see you or at least hear from you at that time.

Sayoonara . . . jaa mata