Adventures of Anette: Traditional Arts

Showing posts with label Traditional Arts. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Wagashi-class in 弘道館: Tea Ceremony, Kimono & 鍋-Party!

Anonymous 11:17:00 PM

Like I have mentioned in a previous blogpost I'm taking Wagashi (Japanese Confectionery)-classes at Ristumeikan this semester. I have to say though, that we have been doing quite a lot beside making sweets in these classes (we have a lot of theory classes about Japanese culture etc as well), and the class this week was in particularly special. Our wagashi-teacher invited us to the former house of a Confucian scholar called Kien Minagawa (皆川淇園), which is a house build back in 1806 (in the Edo-period 江戸時代). Here we got to take part in a tea-ceremony, dress up in Kimono and not to mention having a Nabe (hot pot) party together at the end of the day.

The entrance to 弘道館

A picture of the garden

Arriving early we helped chopping the vegetables we were going to eat later that evening

The Tokonoma (床の間)

After helping with the preparations those of us who arrived early got the chance to wear Japanese Kimono (着物). Though I have been here for nearly a year now this was actually my first time to try one on, so it was quite exiting..

Getting dressed is a lot of work! Luckily we did get help..

Those of us who got the chance to wear Kimono (+ Alex in Samurai outfit..)!

Alex got to dress up like a Samurai.

Me in Kimono

Before entering the room of the tea ceremony we had to wash our hands outside in the garden fountain (つくばい -> 蹲)

Our teacher seems to collect things that has a special background and history. This tea cup was actually used by David Beckham under the World Cup in Berlin 2009.!!!)

Our teacher (to the right) talking about the different tools being used during a tea ceremony

After the tea ceremony was over the room was made into a much less formal party-room instead. The Nabe some of us had helped preparing earlier the day was brought in, and we had a huge nabe-party!
This is probably one of my best school days ever, haha..

Getting ready for a nabe party!

A picture from our table.

At 弘道館 they do have some monthly arrangements where you among others can experience a Japanese tea ceremony yourself. The place is close to the Imperial Palace so it is quite easy to find, and the address is

京都市右京区長者町通新町東入元土御門町524-1

Also, feel free to check out their web site (not translated into English yet)

Monday, May 30, 2011

Traditional Arts

Ritsumeikan Flower Arrangement / Ikebana (生け花) Class

Anonymous 12:12:00 AM

In addition to the Japanese confectionary class (Wagashi), I'm also taking Ikebana, or flower arrangement, this semester. This is a class which Ritusmeikan offers, and which is exclusive for exchange students.
The classes are being held in Missho Kaikan (未生会館) in the western part of Kyoto, and this place is a part of the well-known Misho-ryu Sasaoka School.
Sooo.. Without further ado, here are some pictures from the Ikebana-classes we have had so far:

From our first Ikebana-class

One of the really nice things about this class is that we get to take the flowers with us back home after the class is done. Here are the flowers from the first class we had, and the vase on the picture is one I made last semester in my ceramics class (陶芸)

Second Ikebana class

Our teacher explaining the technicalities of Ikebana

This style is called Seika (生花), and is from the Japanese Edo-period

In Ikebana it is usual to use flowers that hasn't fully bloomed yet, so that one can enjoy the sight of the flower at different stages.

4th Ikebana class: Moribana-style (盛花) arrangement with Sunflowers (ひまわり)

Above: How to arrange flowers in Moribana-style

Close-up of the flower bowl

Moribana-style (盛花)

Thank you for reading! Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below
Anette

Related blogposts

All blogposts from Ritsumeikan

All my blogposts about Japanese Culture Classes offered by Ritsumeikan:

Wagashi (confectionery) (spring semester)

Calligraphy (autumn semester

Ceramics (autumn semester)
Ikebana (flower arrangement) (spring semester)

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Wagashi

Ritsumeikan Traditional Art Courses: Japanese Confectionery (Wagashi)

Anonymous 6:22:00 PM

Every semester Ritsumeikan offers some special traditional art classes which are aimed at exchange students following the SKP program. The classes offered vary from semester to semester, and the traditional art classes offered during the spring semester is Shamisen (三味線), Ikebana (生け花) and Wagashi (和菓子). Wagashi is the word for Japanese confectionery, and this is something especially Kyoto is famous for.

I have to say though that I wish we would make more sweets in this course:p.. So far we have had around 6 classes, but only made sweets twice. Also, we don't learn to make the sweets from scratch. Of course I realize it would have been quite unpractical if we were to do it that way though.. Anyway, enough about that. We get to take the sweets we make with us home, and they are great gifts.!

Our teacher explaining how to make sakuramochi

For making sakuramochi (桜餅) we divided red bean paste into small balls which we then wrapped in mochi rice. Just as easy as it sounds like. (^_^)v

Red bean paste almost covered by mochi

Alex and mochi.

After rolling the mochi so that they are nice and round you just wrap them in two sakura leaves, and voila!, there you have a finished sakuramochi..

Sakuramochi ready to be eaten!

A random pic from the wagashi studio. These are used to make wagashi-sweets with pattern.

第二回 Chimaki!

The second type of Wagashi we have made so far this semester is Chimaki! We used mochi this time as well, though this time even the shape of the mochi had already been prepared for us. What we was going to learn, was how to wrap the mochi in bamboo leaves (ささ -> 笹). Which actually was a little bit tougher than what it sounds like, but quite a lot of fun too. I've also added a video if you want to take a closer look at how to do the wrapping.

Mochi ready to be wrapped..

Our teacher demonstrating where to place the mochi on the bamboo leave

Here is a video showing the wrapping process more detailed.

This is how it looks like when a mochi has been wrapped in bamboo leaves.

But one mochi is not enough for this style though; you need to wrap three of them which you afterwards bind together to make the final chimaki.

After wrapping three mochi in bamboo leaves our teacher showed us how to bind them together.

And there you have it: Chimaki made by me, Alex and Ericka.

Thank you for reading! Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below
Anette

Related blogposts

All blogposts from Ritsumeikan

All my blogposts about Japanese Culture Classes offered by Ritsumeikan:

Wagashi (confectionery) (spring semester)

Calligraphy (autumn semester

Ceramics (autumn semester)
Ikebana (flower arrangement) (spring semester)

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Traditional Arts

Ritsumeikan Traditional Art Course: Ceramics

Anette 5:45:00 PM

Now that I am finished with most of my exams for the semester I´ve decided to write some short blogposts about the traditional art courses I have taken at Ritumeikan this semester; ceramics and calligraphy.

陶芸

Out of all the courses I took this semester, the class in ceramics was by far the one I enjoyed the most. It was relaxing and fun, and at the same time we got to make really nice and unique objects which we could take with us home once they were finished.

The location of the ceramics classes was in Fujihara Togei Studio (藤平陶芸) close to Kiyomizudera, and it takes more or less an hour to get there by bike from Ritsumeikan. (If you look at it in a positive way it is an easy way to get to do some extra exercise every Saturday morning! Haha..)

In the class we got to make among others a tea-set, Japanese Chawan/茶碗 (a special tea cup style) and for one of the objects you choose what to make yourself.

The classes were varied; we learned to make the objects from the bottom and the result was surprisingly good! (Might have been because our teacher saved us every time things seemed to go out of hand)

And besides just the ordinary classes, we also had the chance to participate in a tea ceremony, which were held in a really traditional Japanese house. This was a great experience as well!

A picture of some of the objects we made. At this stage they had just been burned, which you can tell by looking at the color.

In the last class we got to see their original ceramics studio.

Me and my fellow students from the ceramics class gathered at the old Fujihara studio.

The last class we also had a small tea cermony with our teacher and the wife of the owner of the studio, where we drank tea using the Chawan we had made ourselves.

So finally a summarize of the ceramics class:

+ The teacher is great! He is really helpful and engaged in his work.

+ If you are on the verge of destroying your ceramics projects, sensei is always there to help.

+ You get to keep the things you make.

+ The classes are varied, so it never gets boring.

+ You get to try out traditional Japanese tea ceremonies as well.

+ It is easy credits.

+ It is simply FUN!

- The price. Yeah, it is a bit expensive. On the other hand, taking this course through Ritsumeikan is much cheaper than to go to the studio as a private person.

- It is a bit far from school, since the studio is situated close to Kiyomizudera.

- The classes are held on Saturdays in the morning. Do I have to say more?

Anyway, I have no doubt in my mind when I say that this class was great. It was absolutely worth both my money and my Saturday mornings.

I chose to make a flower vase as my 自由作品.

My finished tea cup

The entrance to the ceramics studio

Thank you for reading! Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below
Anette

Related blogposts

All blogposts from Ritsumeikan

All my blogposts about Japanese Culture Classes offered by Ritsumeikan:

Wagashi (confectionery) (spring semester)

Calligraphy (autumn semester

Ceramics (autumn semester)
Ikebana (flower arrangement) (spring semester)

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Traditional Arts

Ritsumeikan Traditional Art Course: Calligraphy

Anette 7:58:00 PM

My first semester here at Ritsumeikan is as good as over now, so I´ve decided to make a couple of blogposts summarizing the traditional art-classes I have been taking this semester: calligraphy and ceramics.

書道

What we basically did in our calligraphy class, was to copy the kanji that our teacher had written in preparation for us and try to make it look as much as possible like his.

You write the same kanji over and over again, either till you have used all your blank sheets, till the time is up or till you have one you are satisfied with. Either way you have choose one of the papers you have written, and turn it in to the teacher.

To be honest, this was basically the same process every single time, so even though the class was relaxing I did not really look forward to them.

For those who has little or no experience when it comes to kanji I guess this is a nice course though; you get to practice the stroke orders of the symbols properly and most of the kanji are quite basic. On the other hand, for those of you who have studied Japanese for a while; don´t expect the biggest challenges when it comes to learning new kanjis. I have to admit to you that there probably won´t be too many of them.

The kanji for Kyoto written in 3 different calligraphy styles. We could choose ourselves which style to write in.

The kanjis we used in class was 日本、夢、平和、鐵心、京都、忍耐、勇気、寿 in addition to some words in hiragana + the numbers 1-10 + 100 and 1000.

Hiragana practice! Yaay.. :-/

So to summarize this real quick:

+ Easy to relax

+ Easy credits

+ One of the cheaper traditional arts classes

+ You can learn stroke orders and basic kanji (for those without Japanese writing experience)

+ You can use the kanjis you have written to decorate you room! Not to mention that our teacher sometimes makes bigger kanji posters as well (like the ones on the picture above), and if you ask him he´ll give them to you.

- A bit repetitive

- Mostly basic kanji (for those who with Japanese writing experience)