1996: Shimogamo

November 1996
Kyoto

A clear blue sky scattered with small puffy clouds contrasts sharply with the grey tile roofs and cream-colored walls of the old Imperial Palace. Crows caw in the ancient pines and the crunch of gravel underfoot are the only sounds in this tranquil island in the center of busy Kyoto. Carpets of golden leaves cover the ground while. the blush of red tinges the old maples. As I walked through the expansive grounds with a Japanese friend on a November day we could imagine, for a brief time, what it must have been like over a thousand years ago when the palace was established. This became one more of many unique experiences I savor from my Japan years.

This experience was especially meaningful because I could share it with a special friend, and it was only 20 minutes by foot from my newest studio in Kyoto — which is much closer to other wonders of the city. It is located just minutes from the famed Shimogamo Shrine founded in the 8th Century and in a triangle formed by the joining of the two rivers that run through the city. The house is estimated to be about 100 years old and has the charm, character and inconveniences associated with its age. The location is perfect and the traditional qualities ideal for my life and work in Kyoto.

My arrival in late June followed several frantic months. in Athens where I juggled a heavy teaching schedule with many-hours in the studio on works for shows in Japan. Upon arrival, I stayed in the large house of an American friend who was away in Europe and often shares her house with visiting artists. In the few weeks before my shows I completed the mounting of the work which is represented by the enclosed card. Twelve works were similar in size (18″ x 27″) and five were in a smaller format (7″ x 7″). The series was titled “Endangered Cities” and was my effort to bring some attention to the constant destruction of the traditional, tile-roofed domestic architectural in Kyoto and Seoul that I have frequently photographed and used in my work over the years. In this series the completed paper images were ripped apart and reassembled with obvious cracks moving through the works. I was back to my own hand-woven ground cloth after using other fabrics for the past eight years and the printing was done in black silver leaf.

The first exhibition was in Kyoto at GalleryGallery for two weeks from the middle of July. On the day after the show closed the work was sent to Tokyo for the. show at Wacoal Ginza Art Space. While there I stayed with friends in a high rise soaring over Tokyo Bay and, later, in the suburbs among tea fields and bamboo forests. The Tokyo show was in the extreme heat of August, so I spent most of my time in the coolness of the gallery where I met friends and other visitors.

In July and August there were visitors from Korea, Arizona, and Athens. The latter two joined Japanese friends to experience Daimonji the event in Kyoto that ends the Obon Holiday (honoring of ancestors) with bonfires on mountainsides around Kyoto in the form of giant Chinese characters. We had an ideal viewing spot atop the school where my friend teaches.

In late August I returned to the U.S. for a little over two weeks splitting my time between Wisconsin where I went to celebrate Mother’s 87th birthday with family and friends, and Georgia to see grandson Lee now going on 4, Page & Jeanne, and attended to some work on my house. I also welcomed and settled into an apartment a Korean student who will study English and move into my house in December.

Shortly after my return to Japan after Labor Day I was off to Pusan, Korea for a visit with friends there. It was a relaxed time with trips to several art schools and artists’ studios as well as other local sights.

Upon return from the Pusan trip, I learned of the house I mentioned earlier from my friend and indigo dyer, Hiroyuki Shindo. The house is surrounded by two houses occupied by his in-laws, the Miyazaki family. The house has four rooms on each of two floors and a garden that has potential for development. It is traditional in all respects with tatami floors, natural wood, and earth plaster walls. It had not been lived in for 5 years and needed some repairs and extensive cleaning. The house is too large for me and I have been fortunate to find an American who is teaching English at a Kyoto university to share the space– and take care of it when I am not in Kyoto. I have a large room on the 2nd floor for my studio with excellent light and views of traditional tile roof tops and the garden pine tree plus excellent storage. On the ground floor I have a nice “library” room and a living/sleeping room that faces the garden. In typical arrangement of old Kyoto houses the kitchen is long and narrow with a 2nd story skylight and bath/toilet located in a “row annex” at the rear along one side of the garden. I move into the house on September 22 and left 4 days later for a month trip to Thailand and Malaysia.

The trip had been planned for some months while finding the house was rather a spontaneous event. A primary goal in Malaysia was to find suitable ground cloth for a Malaysian series of work, visit the weaving centers on the East Coast of the peninsula and experience the unique environment of Sabah on the island of Borneo. In Thailand I planned to spend time with a Thai friend who graduated from UGA and travel with him to the north of the country.

Initially, I spent a week in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur meeting friends and re-visiting some locales from my trip in 1992. Many changes have taken place with the new Kuala Lumpur Tower and a twin office complex said to be the tallest in Asia dominating the skyline — new hotels and shopping complexes continue to rise all over the city. Seeing old friends was most enjoyable and I was able to purchase a number of cotton sarong fabrics in plaids and stripes that will make effective ground cloths for future work.

Before leaving K.L. for Terengganu on the East Coast I was fortunate to meet YM Tengku Ismail Tengku Su, a prince of the Terengganu’s Sultan’s family who has a silk weaving (songket) workshop and is developing a complex of old wooden houses outside of Kuala Terengganu. He was most welcoming, knowledgeable, entertaining, and hospitable. He was back home and greeted me at the airport with his “guy Friday”, Zabibi, who drove me about for the next few days. First, we visited his “palace” in the countryside where he has joined together 5 or 6 traditional wooden, tile roofed houses on stilts 8 feet above the ground. His plan is to have his own living and studio space along with accommodation for a limited number of paying guests, It should be quite grand in a year or so when the complex is completed and the tropical plantings complete the traditional atmosphere.

Later that day we visited the studio in town where he lives and directs the 6 weavers who work for him. Zabidi’s wife and 6-month-old baby spend the day there and together, with the weavers, form a strong family group that I was welcomed into.

I had made reservations in K.L. for a beach hotel that was about 2 hours away by taxi or bus. This distance came as quite a surprise to me, but it worked out well as even on the days I spend in town exploring the markets, Chinatown, and many craft workshops, I could still enjoy the isolated beach at the hotel. I had good relations with the hotel staff and learned about the area and life in the nearby villages (Kampung). The culture on the East Coast is more “pure” Malaysian with a strong muslin presence. The cows are quite fee to roam about and create some hazards on the roads. They have complete right-of-way, of course, and enjoy spending their rest periods at the bus stops which creates other sorts of hazards for travelers.

After 6 days in Terengganu, I flew back to K.L. and then on to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, on the island of Borneo to visit Japanese friends, Akiko and Eiichi Shinjo. Eiichi is vice consul stationed in Kota Kinabalu and they have a large condo on Signal Hill with a magnificent view over the South China Sea, busy port, offshore islands and, to the rear, Mt. Kinabalu (4101m.). Fortunately for me, there were other visitors from Japan, and we all enjoyed wonderful excursions, grand hospitality, and great food. We went to Gaya Island off the coast for snorkeling, trekking to see the unique Rafflesia pricei (the world’s largest flower), suffered through a most painful Chinese foot massage and partook of delicious local seafood and other delicacies. Among the later are a wide range of fruits, some common but most delicious, and others exotic to the extreme. The sweetest pineapple and bananas (40 varieties) plus papaya (bright orange flesh) are familiar. Rambutan, mangosteen, Jackfruit, custard apple, pomelo and durian are among the more unusual. The latter is said to stink (no problem for me) and is described as tasting like onion ice cream. (Really, quite delicious!)

On my own I explored the markets of Kota Kinabalu, the Sabah Museum, with its many examples of indigenous houses from all over the state, and a two-day excursion to Mt. Kinabalu Park and Poring Hot Springs. I did not attempt a hike to the summit but spent a day and a night at the HQ (1585m.) where the many trails through the rainforest provide ample exercise and a chance to enjoy a botanical paradise with a great number of plants which are unique to the area. Many varieties of orchids, rhododendrons, pitcher plants and ferns can be seen. The weather changes quickly and I often found myself surrounded by the clouds. I did have glorious early morning views of the summit, Low’s Peak, for about 45 minutes before the clouds moved in once again.

Poring Hot Springs is about 45 km from the Park HQ, but the main road was closed so the trip with Alex, my driver, took longer than expected. The hot springs (onsen) were developed by the Japanese in WWII, where sulfurous water is channeled into outdoor pools in a garden setting. The lowland forest has quite a different feeling than the previous day’s with many huge, tall, straight trees with buttress roots. There is a Jungle Canopy Walkway with lots of “spring and sway” that allows a bird’s eye view of the jungle. The walk to Langanan falls was an arduous one on steep and slippery paths in the hot and humid jungle but rewarding to me when I finally reached the falls and to the leeches that dined on my ankles along the way. A long soak in a private cabin with hot-and-cold tubs helped in recovery from this excursion. Back in Kota Kinabalu, I enjoyed a few more days with the Shinjos before traveling back to K.L. and on to Thailand.

A few days were spent in Bangkok, where I visited the Phakkat Palace with its collection of traditional Thai wooden houses and Lacquer Pavilion that have collections of Thai Art and shopped for Thai silk for ground cloth in future works. With my friend, Werawat, I visited the Ancient Village said to be the largest open-air museum in the world with scaled-down reproductions of important buildings from all over Thailand. The Village covers many acres, and we spent several hours exploring it by car in the rain and mud.

The following day we left Bangkok by air for Lampang in the north with a long history and a strong influence from Burma in the temple architecture, much of it built of teak. This is referred to as a “layered” style with multiple roofs gabled by intricate wood carvings. A former student of Werawat’s, Doi, and his family were our hosts and took us to many local sights including craft workshops, local Temples, a provincial park with a beautiful waterfall and sulfur hot spring, where we camped overnight, and the Thai Elephant Conservation Center where the 25 or more elephants of various ages perform traditional logging tasks and enjoy sugar cane and bananas offered by the visitors. The most impressive ancient site we visited was Wat Phra That Lampang Luang, probably the most magnificent temple complex in northern Thailand. The various buildings are an excellent record of the northern Lanna style surrounded by roofed brick cloisters and featuring the 15th C century Wihaan Luang, thought to be the oldest existing wooden building in Thailand.

Doi’s family drove us to Lamphun where we visited a 12th C temple and lunched at a restaurant outside of town with a well-populated crocodile pond where I was surprised with a birthday party! Then on to Chiang Mai, Thailand’s 2nd largest city. The old city is a square bounded by moats and sections of the old brick wall and boasts over 300 temples. We were able to visit some of the most important ones including Wat Phra That Doi Suthep on a 1600m peak overlooking the city. The complex dazzles with gold surfaces and lacquer work. Chiang Mai is a center of many traditional crafts, and we were able to see silk weaving, paper and kite making, lacquer ware and metal work. There are markets and bazaars where one can get a feeling for local goods and sample traditional foods. The atmosphere and architecture in the north are quite different from Bangkok, and with the guidance of local hosts we were able to fully enjoy the experience.

Upon return to Kyoto, I was living in my new/old house and used the three weeks to complete the unpacking and settling in tasks. The kitchen needed the most work and I completed the major portion of it before leaving. The living space is ready for living and the studio is ready for work. Just as the house was quite livable and fall color at its peak it was time to leave Japan.

This year, I once again made a quick stop-over in Honolulu where I gave a lecture at the University of Hawaii, enjoyed the gracious hospitality of friends Liz and Yukio, and had a chance to see Moriyo, who lived in my Athens house for years and is now working on his PhD in linguistics at the university. Upon return I spent a few hectic days in Athens and then on to Wisconsin to spend Thanksgiving with mother. I helped her pack up, empty her apartment, and move to Athens which she will now call home. We are looking forward to seeing Page, Jeanne and Lee in Atlanta and friends in Athens for the holidays. I send you all best wishes, for good health and a happy life in the New Year of the OX.