Spotlight:<\/p>\n
Blue:<\/b> Hello everyone! It is such a pleasure and privilege to see you all again. Thank you once more for coming to our presentation. For this section, we\u2019d like to speak with you about the theme of <\/span>inochi<\/span><\/i> in connection to the idea of \u201cpassion,\u201d or \u201cdrive.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Yunjin:<\/b> [CLICK SLIDE] Before we begin, however, we would like to share a little bit about what we hoped to receive from this experience before the start of our trip,<\/span> as well as how we ended up interpreting the theme of <\/span>inochi<\/span><\/i> with the idea of artistic or creative passion and drive.<\/span><\/p>\n Blue:<\/b> Personally, I entered into this experience while thinking of myself as somewhat of a passionless person. I have interests and hobbies, or classes and activities that I enjoy doing, but when I think about my future and what I\u2019d like to end up becoming, I always get a little stuck. It\u2019s difficult to think of something that is unique to me, that only I am able to do, and that I could see myself dedicating my life to mastering. This was the motivation behind taking this course, and something that I was reflecting on throughout the last week. Truthfully, I\u2019ve been blessed with so many wonderful, informative, incredible experiences over the past 10 days that are all so present in my mind, so I\u2019m not sure if I\u2019m any closer to finding whatever my \u201cthing\u201d is. What I do know is that I\u2019ve been enormously inspired and affected by your teachings, and I can feel the kindling of my own drive start to awaken, which I know is thanks to the teachings that I\u2019ve been given.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Yunjin:<\/b> On the first day of this trip, I wrote down that I wanted to be able to study, reflect on, and appreciate all of the traditional arts in Kyoto being kept alive by the diligence, commitment, and passion of the many individuals working together to sustain these crafts. I feel that I have certainly gotten the opportunity to do this in abundance. As previously mentioned by the groups doing the ecosystem and human-and-nature sections of our presentation, I feel incredibly grateful not only for having the chance to study and admire the beautiful craftsmanship and art that I\u2019ve seen in Kyoto, but also to have been able to get closer to understanding the interdependence and collaboration and philosophy necessary to accomplish what might be one individual soup bowl, or one individual Noh performance. Additionally, I really wanted to get closer to understanding what philosophies, both religious and not, compel people to do the things they do in the way they do them, and what philosophies have inspired the passion of different people. The answers I\u2019ve received to this question have varied widely across all of the different people we\u2019ve, but each and every single answer has been inspiring and thought-provoking in some way, and like Blue, I\u2019m excited to continue to reflect on my own passions.<\/span><\/p>\n Blue:<\/b> [CLICK SLIDE] So far in this presentation, the topics we\u2019ve been using to connect our experiences here could easily be applied to each one of the masters we were lucky enough to learn from. However, I think this third theme, <\/span>inochi<\/span><\/i> in connection to passion or drive,\u201d is particularly widely-applicable within the world of <\/span>shokunin<\/span><\/i>. I think all of the <\/span>shokunin<\/span><\/i> we\u2019ve encountered on this trip have expressed a unique, deep relationship between themselves and their work that often felt challenging to comprehend as outsiders or non-artisans. This sense of real, heartfelt passion was felt deeply throughout each of your presentations. Many of you often spoke about a deeply motivated drive to improve constantly, or a drive to deliver the best product, or a drive to share your feelings and spirit with your audience. And many of you also seemed to feel that your work was never truly \u201cdone.\u201d We often heard stories about feelings of imperfection or desire for evolution in the final product that only the artist could see or feel: things like a small line near the corner of the <\/span>Noh<\/span><\/i> mask\u2019s face that felt unsatisfactory, or the desire to try something new with <\/span>urushi<\/span><\/i> the next time. <\/span>While the work being made can often be brought to a finished product, there seemed to always be a constant desire and passion to create or perform or work or evolve, a constant flow of creativity and craft and innovation in a city filled with special traditions. In fact, the sincere passion and drive to innovate appears to have <\/b>sustained<\/i><\/b> the life, or <\/b>inochi<\/i><\/b>, of many traditions in Kyoto.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Yunjin: <\/b>However, while it\u2019s easy to just <\/span>say<\/span><\/i> what we\u2019ve just said, we\u2019d like to demonstrate and more explicitly connect this theme of inochi and passion with some of the specific experiences that we\u2019ve had.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Yunjin:<\/b> [CLICK SLIDE] We thought the passion that Tsutsumi-sensei had not only for refining <\/span>urushi<\/span><\/i>, but also ensuring <\/span>urushi<\/span><\/i>\u2019s survival by helping build PERSPECTIVE with Sachi-san was a great example of how passion keeps inochi<\/em> going. His drive and the work he has vigilantly performed not only to create, but also to sustain and preserve was quite moving to us and gave us a lot of hope after hearing about the risks to the <\/span>urushi<\/span><\/i> tradition. [CLICK SLIDE] For example, we thought his \u201cUrushi no Ippo\u201d initiative and innovative use of urushi, like applying urushi<\/em> to surfboards and skateboards, truly bridged the distance which has grown between urushi<\/em> and the lives of everyday people and very clearly reflected his deep passion for ensuring that <\/span>urushi<\/span><\/i> is preserved not only as an artform to be admired behind a glass barrier in museums and palaces, but also as objects to be used and touched by people\u2019s hands and lives. [CLICK SLIDE] Here we have a beautiful picture of his factory which we had the privilege of visiting, where the urushi<\/em> is refined and colored. At one point, Tsutsumi-sensei’s feelings of wanting to preserve urushi and urushi trees were described as \u201cdesperate\u201d or a kind of \u201cdesperation,\u201d which we found very moving. We thought Tsutsumi-sensei\u2019s work was a clear example of how deep passion and his drive to innovate has worked to sustain <\/span>inochi<\/span><\/i>, from the <\/span>inochi<\/span><\/i> in the <\/span>urushi<\/span><\/i> trees and the lacquer, the <\/span>inochi<\/span><\/i> in continuing Kyoto\u2019s long-standing traditions and his family\u2019s craft, or the <\/span>inochi<\/span><\/i> in using sustainable products like <\/span>urushi<\/span><\/i> surfboards and <\/span>urushi<\/span><\/i> bowls instead of plastic and the <\/span>inochi<\/span><\/i> in handing these objects down to the next generation to continue the object\u2019s life. [CLICK SLIDE]<\/span><\/p>\n Yunjin:<\/b> We also found that Toyama-sensei\u2019s divergence from family’s traditional kimono-dyeing business to follow his interest in photography was also a kind of deep passion. <\/span>During his presentation, he mentioned that he felt he needed to make something with his hands in order to be on the same stage as the shokunin<\/em> he wished to capture for his project photographing <\/span>shokunin<\/span><\/i> and their craft. [CLICK SLIDE] He stated that he couldn\u2019t represent the shokunin or portray their likeness(?) without being on the same stage as them, which resulted in him building a number of vintage(?) cameras with his own hands, and relying on older-style, more analogue techniques to process his images to respect the <\/span>shokunin<\/span><\/i> handmade tradition. It was amazing how he used his passion for photography to return to and honor the shokunin<\/i> way. Here too we find passion extending and sustaining the life of tradition. [CLICK SLIDE] Toyama-sensei\u2019s wife actually mentioned philosophy had also influenced her to make her own handmade miso, soy sauce, and salt, instead of purchasing them from the store, which we all thought tasted incredible. We thought that this desire to \u201cmake things with one\u2019s own hands\u201d and \u201ctouch objects with one\u2019s own hands\u201d could also be interpreted as a sense of <\/span>inochi<\/span><\/i>, in that there always appears to be a feeling of life, aliveness, and spirit when using and touching handmade and natural products, which seems noticeably absent in the mass-produced and artificial.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Blue:<\/b> [CLICK SLIDE] Lastly, we really felt a sense of passion in connection to <\/span>inochi<\/span><\/i> with Kawamura-sensei. It was perhaps most visible when he did us the honor of performing for us one-on-one, taking on the responsibility of both chorus and performer in order to give us the most complete demonstration possible. It seemed like a difficult task, but being in such close proximity to the dance and the words allowed us to communicate with and feel <\/span>inochi<\/span><\/i> being brought out and sustained in the space. He has the heart of an educator, and a true love for and connection to his craft, which he combines to spread the beauty and significance of <\/span>Noh<\/span><\/i> worldwide. [CLICK SLIDE] We were especially struck when he described <\/span>Noh<\/span><\/i> theater as a contemporary art form, since our brief study of it before arriving in Kyoto gave us the sole impression that it was a performance style based in and drawn from tradition and the past. Kawamura-sensei, on the other hand, taught us that it\u2019s the hearts and motivations of the performers that continue to allow Noh to be a craft for the present. [CLICK SLIDE] We\u2019ve come to understand that each performance of a Noh play is unique, despite the stories being the same, and through this uniqueness, the performances are able to mirror the current preoccupations of society, and in turn, audiences continue to connect with this art form.\u00a0 [CLICK SLIDE] Through the passions of Noh performers, Noh itself is sustained in the current day, along with the <\/span>inochi<\/span><\/i> that is undeniably present in every inch of the stage, from the <\/span>omote<\/span><\/i>, to the costumes, to the words and chants, to the hearts of the performers and audience members themselves.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Blue:<\/b> We’ve just spoken briefly about some of our specific experiences that we felt closely related to this theme of sustaining inochi through passion, but as we mentioned previously, we felt an overwhelming sense of dedication and care from each and every one of you in relation to your craft. Because of this, we’ve found that inochi, passion, and craft are all inextricably linked to one another; without having one, you can’t have the others. I think there are many people who will never attain the level of drive that we’ve seen over the last few days, but it made a deep impression on us, and as we return home and back to our daily lives, we’ll\u00a0 continue to strive to find our own passions, so that we, too, may contribute to the sustainability of inochi.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Spotlight: Tsutsumi Takuya and Urushi Refinement Toyama Ryosuke and Photography Kawamura Haruhisa and Noh Performance Blue: Hello everyone! It is such a pleasure and privilege to see you all again. Thank you once more for coming to our presentation. For … Continue reading