Tea Ceremony 茶の湯

Sunday today and I am relaxing at home on my day off. The weather is hot. I dread to think what it will be like over the next two months! After doing the washing and sprucing up my apartment a bit I headed out for a walk around midday. Did some Tai Chi practice and walked around the perimeter of a beautiful temple and forest near my house. As I walked past the small city garden opposite the temple I noticed a sign saying that today a tea ceremony was taking place in the tea hut there. So I went in.

I was invited in and paid my 300 yen before taking my seat (that is, on the floor) in a beautiful tea room along with about ten people. I have often walked past the tea hut and looked through the open door. It is very beautiful and I think very old with a round window and tatami floors and a fireplace in the middle. I was so lucky that I happened to walk past on a day when they were doing tea ceremony and actually got to go inside.

I ate my Japanese sweet and listened to the host explain the meaning of the calligraphy in the tokonoma (small recess in the wall). It was a zen aphorism about the way in which fish swimming upstream through a waterfall transform themselves into dragons through their great effort. There were a number of people serving the tea all dressed in beautiful kimono. They were members of a tea ceremony class. When I was an exchange student I was able to attend the tea ceremony classes my grandmother taught once a month and it was nice to have an opportunity on this trip to participate once more. It is a very strange art in many ways. The tea is prepared with great care and very slowly and each step in the ritual is carefully prescribed. We were not expected to follow any particular rules of tea ceremony as casual visitors but through watching others and my vague memories from all those years ago I managed to fumble my way through without feeling like too much of an idiot.

Afterwards the people asked me about myself and I explained that I was now living in Niiza and had lived in Japan before as an exchange student and had the opportunity to participate in tea ceremony at that time. Everyone was very kind and gracious and as usual went out of their way to flatter their foreign guest.

I took the photos on this post in an earlier walk I took to Heirinji temple some time last year. The rest of them can be viewed here:

A Walk to Heirinji Temple in Niiza

Interests

I have too many interests. Sometimes I wish I could find something to focus on. But I probably never will. Always leaping all over the place.

What are they?

Art, music, fashion, politics, love, sex, revolution, English, Japanese, East Asian languages, Chinese characters, history, beauty, philosophy, time, anthropology, zen, Buddhism, history of religion, dancing, psychedelic trance, progressive house, progressive trance, tai chi, French, cinema, French cinema, Italy, German, medicine, farming, agriculture, nature conservation, ecology, permaculture and all aspects of natural farming and land management, the history of land management, forestry and its history, communication, human relationships, schooling, anti-schooling, popular culture, tv, critical theory, food, cooking, diy, zines, squatting, Venezuela, South America, Spanish, the rennaissance, the occult, alchemy, homoeopathy, Chinese medicine, indigenous cultures, indigenous languages, dialects and language variance, vocabulary, etymology, poetry, fiction, masturbation, relaxing, sleeping, swimming, skiing, soccer, qi gong, zazen, ...

Well that is a few of them. I like drinking and taking drugs too. No wonder I feel a little unfocused a lot of the time.

There is this kind of expectation or culture in our lives that says we should stick to one thing. This is largely bound up with the institution of work and the division of labour which says that we ought to confine ourselves to a role as cogs in a great machine producing capital. I reject this culture.

Yet how to realise a full spectrum of interests in the face of this culture. How to resist not the self but the system. My experience thus far is that it is hard to realise a full life because either work sucks all one's time into a narrowly defined area of labour or lack of work prodcues a lack of structure which sucks all one's motivation, one's connection with other people and hence one's ability to create freely. We definitely need people in our lives who help us to discipline ourselves and help us to reflect on our practice. At the same time we need loving relationships with ourselves which enable us to be strong and to resist. We need self-discipline and self-acceptance.

My interests manifest as behaviours, as thoughts, as choices to read, to think, to engage in dialogue, to visit museums, to lie in bed. There is no reality separate from this continuous flow. So why do I seek to bind it to a grand narrative structure? It is hard to live in the uncertainty of the present. It is hard not to grasp. To try to force each aspect of experience into a grand master narrative that leaps out of the ashes of the eternal and tries to bind the yet unrealised future to the dead weight of the past.

The struggle continues.

Hanami 花見

Spring has arrived in Japan and this past weekend was the peak time to see the cherry blossoms blooming all over Tokyo and Saitama. Last Monday on my way home from the pool I walked along the river under the cherry blossom trees as they were just starting to bloom. I heard great things about the Yanasegawa River not far from my place son on Friday morning I went for a cycle down there. The trees were almost in full bloom and lots of people were out strolling under the trees or lying on blue tarps spread out on the riverbank. Lots of little stalls selling festival food have been set up.

From Hanami Cycling at the Yanasegawa River, Saitama

My true Hanami though was to come on Saturday and Sunday at Yoyogi park in central Tokyo. On Saturday night after week I headed into the park with a picnic, beer and my friends Tim and Fi on their way to Korea after having finished their time in Nozawa Onsen. It started raining slightly as we left and when we arrived at the station streams of people were heading home as light rain pitter-pattered down. Then we ran into Dwight who had come to the station to meet us. We made our way into the park where enormous mounds of rubbish, blue tarps and the detritus of a day's cherry-blossom drinking littered the park.

From Saturday Night Hanami at Yoyogi

Over at party number one we found a not-too-wet tarp and spread out our picnic. After scoffing down some sushi and drinking some beer we went over to the music which was being projected from the footpath just outside the park separated by a little fence. Not long after the cops showed up and some negotiations ensued. The music was switched off and not long after the chant 'Fuck the Police' sprang up for a while and then died off. In the end it appears that the cops ordered the organisers to move the soundsystem inside the park grounds but at this point we went for a walk.

From Saturday Night Hanami at Yoyogi

Then we found party number two where some psytrance beats quickly gave way to cheezy house but there was hula-hooping! Fi showed off her mad hula-hooping skills.

From Saturday Night Hanami at Yoyogi

I tried, managed to keep the hoop going longer than I ever had before but gave up quickly and went for a dance - just as the music finished! So then it was time for party number 3 - the party I think I had thought I was going to in the first place. Ran into some friends there and danced to some suitably phat psytrance beats. It was beautifully set up under a blossoming tree with about a hundred revelers gathered around dancing and chatting in the warm night. Twas not long before we had to go for last train - just missing my friend Ian's set which was about to start!

From Saturday Night Hanami at Yoyogi

Then the next day I had a plan to meet some friends from the Rage and Football Collective for a bit of social soccer but slept late, fucked around and got there in time for the end. Luckily though, we went for lunch and beer at a nearby chain restaurant getting thoroughly drunk and full in preparation for hanami back at Yoyogi, or in other words, more drinking and eating. I was able to catch-up with some of the lovely people I met at the first Rage and Football event I attended in Shinjuku in January. One of whom, Tomoko, maintains a blog (in Japanese) here.

We decided to walk to Yoyogi park from Yotsuya (where we were) - which took about an hour and a half. It was a pleasant walk in the warm spring day and took us past Shinjuku Gyoen Park which had a huge queue of people waiting for admission (not free). They were lined up along the path so deep that we had to squeeze past them. I love walking through Tokyo like this because I start to feel like I know my way around the city a little and see how things are connected. Tokyo is so overwhelming in so many ways but it helps to get into the feeling when the mass of disconnected suburbs are found to occupy real geographical space. The final part of the walk was through the grounds of Meiji shrine which led to a number of discussions of the history of state Shinto. As we entered the grounds we were stopped by guards who ordered us to roll-up the Rage and Football Collective Flag, alleging that it might be mistaken for a right-wing flag. Our members were deeply offended! Ito-san said plainly to the guard: We are lefties!

From Sunday Hanami at Yoyogi

From Sunday Hanami at Yoyogi

We joined the Enoaru Hanami party. Enoaru has featured in this blog before. It is a cafe operated by some artists who live in the homeless community in Yoyogi park. As such it was attended by many residents of various tent-cities and other homeless people as well as activists I have run into in my journey so far. More drinking and chatting and then some of us went to the Harukaze free party on the other side of the road from the park. There we saw a number of great DJs and bands including Sayako Meets Planets and the Tokyo Revolutionaries. There I ran into Ian again and enjoyed chatting with him about life in Japan. The Tokyo Revolutionaries are a kind of reggae outfit and led the crowd in songs celebrating smoking marijuana, sex, love and freedom. The lead singer is quite famous in the legalize marijuana movement in Japan and although I have to say his singing voice was not what you would call lyrical he was a great entertainer.

From Sunday Hanami at Yoyogi

Well headed back to the picnic, drank more and then went to find some other more underground park parties. We passed through two parties on our way to the party we were actually looking for. Clearly Hanami brings everyone to Yoyogi! I think the music at this last gig was the best I heard during the weekend. Groovy kind of dub feeling. I was so drunk by that stage that I could really get into the spirit.

I think the true Hanami spirit is exemplified by collapsing drunk in a pool of your own vomit after having consumed ridiculous quantities of alcohol and food. Having satisfied the conditions for a good heave I managed to keep it together as far as Asaka-dai station where the action of getting up off the floor of the train and stepping out the door was too much for me. Sorry fellow commuters who had to use that platform following my outstanding performance. I managed to stumble to the bathroom of the next train station before loosing the contents of my stomach again and having done so I staggered up to the platform, called Tim and Fi (who were at a different Hanami party) and asked them to make sure I got on the train. Not long after they arrived and I managed to make it home, put my vomit stained clothing in the washing machine, turn it on (even managed to put the powder in) and then drop into bed.

The Spirit of Hanami will not be quickly forgotten!

Hanami Cycling at the Yanasegawa River, Saitama

Saturday Night Hanami at Yoyogi

Sunday Hanami at Yoyogi

Scholarship, Learning, Being Alone, Being Together

I wrote this a few weeks ago but didn't post it. Here goes.

I am still finding it very hard to spend time by myself. I feel this anxious, gnawing almost painful sensation in my gut and I can't sit still. I am trying to finish writing my research proposal but as I write I can barely suppress the urge to leap up, engage in some other activity. I can't easily sustain the concentration and focus I need in order to complete this and thus be free to do the next thing.

At the core of this anxiety is my deeply fractured understanding of what it is to learn, to research, to teach. Learning has always been so important to me. Yet somehow I have come to believe that it has no or little value. Despite the fact that I am a scholar and that the vast majority of my scholarship has been self-directed or has occurred within spaces outside the traditional academy I am driven by this feeling of uselessness. As if all of this endeavour has been essentially a waste of my time. As if I would only be a valuable human being if I gave up on theory and devoted myself to more 'practical' matters.

It isn't like I don't have help in this regard. Learning, scholarship, theory, critical reflection are typically devalued in our culture. What is more, they are often devalued in activist culture as well. 'Theory' is often labeled as ineffective or less valuable than practice. I was having a conversation the other day with some homelessness activists in a park in Shibuya. When talking about autonomist theory and in particular Hardt and Negri's work with one of them I found it almost dismissed. The living, powerful example of the work going on around us, the creation of a space for homeless people living in Shibuya to come together, sing karaoke, enjoy the warmth of a fire and have dinner together a self-evident reflection of the impotence of theory. And yet if I accept this then I am essentially allowing much of my own political practice, a practice which has always involved extensive theoretical reflection, to be counted as next to worthless.

I have experienced a great deal of practical political activity which was, in my opinion, insufficiently reflexive. Insufficiently theorised and hence though giving the outward appearance of great activity appeared to me impotent or simply spectacular.

I think that part of my anxiety stems from my reluctance to label myself as a scholar. Yet my own practice is largely consistent with such a label. I think in part this is because I want to refuse fixed identities. Yes I am a scholar, but I am also a cook, a lover, a doer of dishes and laundary, a sweeper of floors and a dancer of dances. I am currently a teacher of English and I have been many things in terms of paid work. Here too, the problem. Resistance to work means that I can't engage fully in the identity offered by paid employment. I always want to refuse the label 'I'm an English teacher' but in doing so I constantly tear open the fabric of my own identity. This is where the concept of subjectivity has been proving more and more powerful to me lately.

I struggle a lot with being on my own. In order to do sustained writing or reading of any time it is necessary to have a degree of space and time. Yet when I am alone the feelings of anxiety, alienation and restlessness bubble up and overflow, destroying my concentration and driving me hither and thither. Then, when I do manage to achieve something, like a piece of writing or a blog post, or finish some reading I attack myself for not having done more. This self-destructive cycle is really frustrating. Especially when I can recognise almost all the elements of the cycle but feel powerless to change it.

Groovy

Another weekend has come to an end and back to work this morning. Every week going back to work gets easier as I get more and more used to it. I have a lot more power at work now, particularly as I only have about 4 months left there so I don't really care anymore what happens. Yay! It would be so funny to hop in a time machine and go back to myself about 5 months ago when I was so freaked out and say "See, it really is going to be OK."

To say weekend is probably an understatement. I actually had an extended weekend that lasted all week! Tuesday night last week went out with Michiko and some of her friends for dinner at an Okinawan restaurant near Shiki. Good food, good company, good atmosphere. Good feeling of sitting next to my beautiful friend Michiko and feeling her warmth. I dropped in at a cool bar on my way home for a drink and chatted with a bunch of tanked people who were celebrating somebody's birthday party. Then finally went home to bed.

On Wednesday I went to the arts and crafts exhibition as mentioned in previous post. Then Thursday went to a bar in Ebisu where my friend Ian was playing some nice progressive/psy beats and my friend Jaime was having a little birthday party. Then went to a little bar in Waseda and spent the night immersed in a cloud of good conversation and cheap beer. This was the coolest bar I've ever been too! Had lots of fun talking to old friends and new. Got home finally at about 7:30 am and stayed up for hours crying and writing on facebook. Felt thoroughly purged when I finally went to bed at about 10am and then had lots of fun trying to stay awake at work.

Then Friday night went to Ikebukuro to have dinner with Dwight, yay! Dwight has arrived in Japan. We spent ages trying to find somewhere promising to eat but ended up at a chain izakaya (Japanese bar/restaurant). Great to catch up and hang out with someone I have actually known for more than 5 minutes. Dwight just got back from his first two weeks in Japan which were spent in Hokkaido snowboarding and visiting the Ice festival in Sapporo.

Saturday night was earth groove. I have been looking forward to this party for quite a while. Valentine's day at work was rather saturated with chocolate so I left there feeling vaguely sick. Went home and had some dinner and then got ready to go out. I wanted to stop at a bar in Koenji on my way but ended up getting there so late I could only stay for about half an hour. Nevertheless, at least I got to hang out with some groovy people and get myself ready for the earth groove. A really nice American guy called Jeremy runs the bar on a Saturday night. He has lived in Japan for several years and speaks really good Japanese. Then got an email from Michiko that said no can do short term relationship. Sad. But OK. It was fun. Felt beautiful again.

Finally arrived in Aoyama and after walking straight past the venue and along the street for quite some distance made my way there. Earth Groove was organised by Emilie whom I have heard about but never met. She organises parties under the name Parties for Peace. The parties are meant to promote peace and this one being a fundraiser for a campaign to protect Patagonia. The music is techno/house which means it doesn't have quite the deep bass that I'm used to. It was good for hanging out and chatting to. I met lots of people and finally chatted properly to Ian and Mitsu who are a really beautiful couple. Thought about trying to flirt a bit but only ended up talking to women already in relationships! I think I just didn't have it in me. I've been a little too introspective lately. Not really the kind of mood that can sustain flirtation. The wheel keeps turning and these kinds of moods take hold of me for a while, move through me and then go. Finally left the party at about 5am and walked to the station with Ian and Mitsu. I managed to sleep on the train at every point and wake up exactly at my station - I must be getting used to this.

Sunday was quiet. Went for a swim and then Dwight came over and we carried his boxes to his new place in Itabashi ward. So exciting! His place is nice, quite roomy. He cooked me dinner and we talked about Japan, relatioships, music, parties, the arrogance of most DJs and about a thousand other things. So nice to have a good friend come to live in Japan. Monday I spent at home pretending to write my research proposal and finally actually started doing some real work on it very late at night. Went swimming on Sunday and Monday at a pool in Asaka. Now here we are! It's Tuesday again - ready for another week? Well, ready or not.

Arts and Crafts

Today I went to see the Life and Art: Arts & Crafts from Morris to Mingei exhibition at the Tokyo City Museum in Ueno. I met up with my friend Naoko. I met Naoko in Australia when I was studying homoeopathy and we became dear friends. Since I have come to Japan we seem to have trouble actually meeting up all that time but whenever we do it is wonderful. It is so nice to spend time with someone I actually know well. Naoko lives in Yokohama, which is on the opposite side of Tokyo from Saitama and hence we are pretty far away from one another.

I received tickets to the exhibition from my Japanese teacher so we got in for free, yay! The exhibition was really well put together. There was some explanation in English and more in Japanese but more than this it was the way it was put together that gave a real sense of the development of the movement itself. I have seen a couple of Arts & Crafts Movement exhibitions in Australia but never managed to grasp the philosophical meaning of their work. It just seemed pretty. This exhibition really emphasised the artists vision of nature and a kind of romantic reaction to industrialisation. In looking at the exhibition from this point of view though, I have to say that I lost a lot of my admiration for their work.

Arts & Crafts is mostly just that, arts and crafts which are functional. Furniture, tapestries, tableware, wallpapers, books, clothing, stained glass windows, vases, crockery etc. One of the first things that struck me was the obvious expense of the objects, even when they were made. They were clearly not accessible to most people and their were many photos of the expensive manners for which large interior design commissions were created. There is a profound opposition in the works to the idea of modernity. Human figures are draped in high feudal dress robes, nature is exhalted and in one particular series of works on the four seasons there was an intensely romanticised image of country peasant life. One gets the impression that in the face of the horrors of late nineteenth century industrialisation the artists could conceptualise of little else than a flight into a mythic, idyllic past. There are many references to mythology in the works, such as to the myth of St. George and the dragon. The irony is that only the winners in the industrial revolution could possibly have been able to afford these pieces.

The incredible beauty of many of the works is seen in the roundness of lines and the use of colour. The salute to nature is also infectious. There is one tapestry in the exhibition of a woodland scene filled with animals which bears a motto commanding to gaze upon nature with wonder and not to interfere. This beautiful idealism is certainly one of the admirable qualities of this body of work. I'm not sure how to describe the colours. There is a lot of use of bright colour as well as pastel greens and blues in some of the nature scenes.

An interesting feature of this exhibition was the connection made to the Mingei crafts movement in Japan which was directly influenced by Arts & Crafts. These pieces were predominantly traditional Japanese in style with a nuance of Arts & Crafts style. If they had not been presented as part of the exhibition I would never have made the connection. Nevertheless, I didn't realise that Arts & Crafts had such a wide influence. There was a section on Arts & Crafts influence in Europe too. I particularly liked some of the German pieces which included many posters. There seemed to be a slightly more Art Deco feeling to the German stuff where the English work is overwhelmingly Art Nouveau.

This analysis is based entirely on my own feelings. It may not be accurate historically.

After the exhibition we went to Koenji and had dinner at Yoyo-san's delicious vegetarian cafe Vege Shokudou (べじ食堂）. Then we had coffee at this cool coffee bar I have wanted to visit for ages. Once again my love of Koenji has been reaffirmed!

Lines from Blake

Some lines from William Blake:


To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And Heaven in a Wild Flower;
To hold infinity in the Palm of your Hand
And Eternity in an Hour

***

He who binds to himself a joy
Doth the winged life destroy.
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in Eternity's sunrise