swanceramics.com » Festival

New Years Celebration in The Netherlands

swanica — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 12:48:13 +0000

New Years Eve celebrations in Holland are as divers as the people, but with the recent economical situation a lot of people go back to old traditions like having the party at home, watching TV or playing boardgames together.

My sister-in-law Inge, my son Roland and niece Esmee.

We played a board game from about a hundred years ago, which our grandfather played from my husband’s family side. It is played once a year on New Year’s Eve. It is about farmers being afraid of having to pay too much taxes. We play with old Dutch pennies not being used anymore because of the Euro.

Then at 12 midnight after wishing everybody a Happy New Year and drinking champagne, everybody rushes outside to light fireworks with a big bang starting the New Year! It is not organized. Anybody can light fireworks. It is everywhere around you! Watch this YOU TUBE VIDEO!!

Dragon boat races in Enoshima

swanica — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:58:45 +0000

On Sunday, yesterday, we bicyled to Enoshima, which is a small island near Kamakura and famous for her goddess of Music and Entertainment, Benzaiten, who is enshrined on the island and who is said to have made it rise from the bottom of the sea in the sixth century.
It was a beautiful day: warm and sunny, not too hot, a nice breeze. Lots of people were out, walking, bicycling and sitting on the beaches along the coast or surfing, windsurfing or sailing: just a lot of activity going on and people enjoying one of the last nice weekends before really autumn starts.

There were dragon boat races being held in the out flowing river into the sea. The racers were young and old, women and men and just lots of fun to see. Also, the front man gave the rhythm by hitting a gong. Really appropriate. Watch the YOU TUBE movie!

Then we had some delicious pizza in an Italian restaurant. Pizza in Japan! But it had this really thin crust and baked in a wood kiln and we had the one with some anjovis, the Napolitana. It was really good! “Oishikatta desu” in Japanese!

This gave us energy for the ride back with the wind in our backs. What a wonderful day!

Festival at the Komyoji Temple

swanica — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:57:48 +0000

Last week, there was a festival “Matsuri” at our neighborhood temple (YOU TUBE video), the Komyoji. Every year they have an event at the temple called Ojuya, which means a Buddhist memorial service for the repose of the dead for 3 days. The temple belongs to the Jodo Buddhist sect and exist from 1243AD.

It is very festive. The temple grounds are filled with all kinds of stands
from food stalls, like the stall with health food snack of octopus and squid!,

to games for little children catching goldfish with a flat sieve,

and stalls of wicker household ware.

Then there are the memorial services in the temple (to the left a picture of praying monks and to the right a special altar with offerings) and performances: a dance performance by children (YOU TUBE movie) and a orchestral performanc e by monks (YOU TUBE movie).

You can visit the entrance gate “Sanmon” and climb to (YOU TUBE movie) the second level where you have a wonderful view over the temple grounds and part of the city and the sea. Inside on the second floor wooden statues are preserved behind glass. You still can see the colors of the paint.
The faces and composure of the body of the praying monks
(YOU TUBE movie) are full of expression.

And the gods standing next to them are protecting them.

Some events and daily life during the festival.

swanica — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 07:43:18 +0000

We stayed at the Nan-in, the center temple of all festivities: meetings, eating, sleeping and performing art events.
The Buddhist service started every morning at 6.30am and after that we had breakfast. At 9am we had a staff meeting. Ayako-san and Shinobu-san , the founders of Happymaker, presided over every meeting after which we all went our seperate ways to our exhibitions.
Ayako’s father is the head monk of the Nan-in temple and the whole family including also her mother, two sisters and brother and wife helped with everything. Then there were lots of volunteers who helped either through an organization or just by reading it in the newspaper that they could help.
The exhibitions closed in general at 4pm, but most of the time I made it just back in time for dinner at the Nanin at 6pm. Then there was an event/ performance and at 9pm we had another meeting.

Breakfast in the men’s sleeping hall at 7.30am.

Morning meetings at 9am and evening staff meetings were also held in the men’s sleeping hall.

The women’s sleeping hall in which we slept sometimes with about twenty and surprisingly only two times I heard somebody snoring!

The opening party. The founder Ayako-san in the picture is the 3rd from the right and founder Shinobu-san is all the way to the left. Ayako-san, the collage artist, is introducing herself.

The opening party.

There were quite some events in the evening from which I only can post a few.

Takeshi-san and Veronique give their performance before the star gazing event.

Shomyo concert: a kind of Buddhist ritual chanting music in the Nanin and after that the rice-cake-throwing event.

The Crystal Bowl concert in which people relax their body and soul with the sounds of crystal bowls reverberating through the temple.

Everything was very well organized thanks to Ayako-san, Shinobu-san, Ayako-san’s family, the artists and all the volunteers and performers.

Artists of the Happymaker show at Koyasan

swanica — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:19:45 +0000

Happy maker is an art festival in which works of different genres can be experienced while walking around Koya town. Many events have been organized for both adults and children. It’s exhibition space is Mount Koya which has a long history of artists. Beautiful art on folding screens,papered sliding doors,and on hanging scrolls in temples has survived from the past. Many treasures from architecture, paintings, sculpture and calligraphic works causes it to be called a mountaintop art museum.We would like you to feel this traditional heritage and the new wind that is blowing through it.

Installation by Shinobu-san.

Ceramic Raku installation by Chieko-san.

Ayawa music experience with hanging sound speakers.

Sound faucet installation by Eriko Iimura-san.

Photo from old couple by Eriko Koga-san.

Woodfiber Starlight installation.

Woodfired Vessel.

Pastel Drawing by Kayo-san.

Artwork by collage artist Ayako Morisawa.

Imagery on the wall by Yosuke-san.

His website:
http://ashida.workarea.jp/

Photography by Yukiko-san.

Zaimokuza Festival

swanica — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 15:21:18 +0000

The “zaimoku” in the name Zaimokuza means “lumber,” and the “za” generally means a guild of merchants and artisans who did business under the patronage of the large shrines, and temples in the Kamakura (1185/92-1333) and Muromachi periods (1335-1573).

Zaimokuza was a thriving port. In 1232, the port of Wakaejima, Zaimokuza’s old name, was constructed to cope with the expanding commerce. Following expansion, the area became a trading center for lumber, and many lumber merchants settled here. It has been declared a national Historical Landmark in 1924, because it’s the sole surviving example of artificial harbor of the Kamakura Period.

The Gosho Jinja Shrine was built in 1908 to combine 8 shrines in this neighborhood. This shrine is the tutelary deity of Zaimokuza.

There is a lively festival on the second Sunday of each June. The festival is attended by many local people and starts with a service at the Gosho Jinja Shrine and requests for blessings and good trade. The “Mikoshi”, a portable heavy shrine , is carried by the faithful on Zaimokuza’s streets and into the sea at Zaimokuza beach. This takes more than 3 hours. The Mikoshi is thought to be very old, because the repository contains a plaque marked and corresponding to 1642. A small structure next to the repository holds a neatly preserved stone tablet, inscribed with an era name corresponding to 1262 and has been designated a National Important Work of Art.

Many laborers hauled carts loaded with lumber from Wakaejima Port, loudly chanting kiyariondo,a lumber-carriers’ chant on their way to Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, the new shrine for Minamoto no Yoritomo, the first shogun of Japan (1147-99). This chant has been handed down as tenno’uta in the Zaimokuza area. And so, it is still loudly chanted by all the carriers in a rythmic movement, swaying from one side to the other side of the street.(See the movie)

It is carried by men as well as women.

Also, children have their own mikoshi (on wheels) and learn it already at a young age.

On top of the shrine is a phoenix bird: the symbol of fire and divinity, immortality and invincibility.

Arriving on the beach.

And into the water!!

Watch the YouTube movie of the carriers coming out of the water and with their chants: Zaimokuza Festival: carrying the Mikoshi

New Year in Japan 2

swanica — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 08:42:20 +0000

On New Years Eve we also went to the Hongakuji temple on our way back home. This temple is beautifully decorated with lighted lamps “akachochin” (red lamps) and “shirochochin” (white lamps).

This is the Ebisu-do Hall built by the 1st shogun Minamoto Yoritomo to honor the guardian gods of the village. Ebisu is the Japanese god of fishermen, good luck, and workingmen, as well as the guardian of the health of small children. He is one of the Seven Gods of Fortune and the only one of the seven to originate from Japan. And Kamukara with a border on the sea, Sagami Bay, has lots of fisherman.
Nichiren lived in this hall to continue his missionary work. He was a Buddhist monk and is credited with founding what has come to be known as Nichiren Buddhism, a major school of Japanese Buddhism.
In 1436, the main temple got built and part of Nichiren’s ashes were brought here.

The main temple.

During the New Year holidays crowds come for the Ebisu festival and lucky maidens “Fukumusume” distribute sacred sake to the temple visitors.

At the beginning of the new year the temples will chime their bells with the magic number 108 times. This is to finish the old year and welcome the new one. Each ring represents one of 108 earthly temptations a person must overcome to achieve nirvana.
Every body can ring the bell and you stand in line and pay 100 yen.

Then you pull the rope and the wooden block hits the big bell which resonates for a long time.

And the new year begins! GOOD LUCK in 2009!!!!

Tableware Festival Tokyo Dome

swanica — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 12:19:31 +0000

Today, I went to the Tableware Festival in Tokyo Dome. Like last year, again so many beautiful table settings and so much choice of ceramic ware. And then in combination with the interior of a dining room and especially also, ikebana, flower pieces. All very beautiful.
Here is a very small sample.

Setting with different plates.

One of the awards for individual work.

Reflection bowls: put on a mirror and you can see the bottom of the piece.

Tableware Festival Tokyo Dome

swanica — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 13:44:00 +0000

There were wonderful table settings at the Tableware Festival 2007 in Tokyo Dome.

This one is the Autumn table setting. I like the warm feeling of it.

The Lilly table setting.

The Rose table setting.

The Japanese Scroll table setting.

A beautiful Oribe plate.

Then there were booths with all kinds of additional wares to enhances the dining room and the dining experience.

Sculptures.

Basketry.

Murals.

Iron kettles.

Tableware Festival Tokyo Dome 1

swanica — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 12:58:00 +0000

So, in the afternoon, I went to Tokyo Dome to the Tableware Festival 2007.
It was astonishing and so much to see.

Yo Thom’s work.
Her website: http://www.yothom.com

Euan Craig’s work.
Look also on my blog in the month of July for more of his work. http://www.d1.dion.ne.jp/~euan/sub4.htm

Penny Simpson’s pottery work. She wrote “The Japanese Pottery Handbook” together with Lucy Kitto and Kanji Sodeoka.

http://www.moretonhampstead.com/ceramics.htm

There were rooms where they had all kinds of small table settings.

Lacquer ware table setting.

Oribe ware table setting.

Black lacquer ware table setting.

Porcelain ware table setting.

Crystal glassware setting.

Pink/purple glassware.