Tenhsin Tray

Probably you heard that Okakura Tansin's six sider up in Ibaragi washed away last March.  I have been working on a tray to use in a tea ceremony I plan to put on to celebrate him this October.

Watermelon days

Up on the hill we were smacking the watermelons around, then some fireworks.  Summer is really here.

hot and huumid

Hard weather is beginning in Tokyo.  I started to paint on the train, where it is still air conditioned.  But with Tokyo Power on a thread thanks to our nuclear dependancy, it is hard to say how long even the trains will last.

Train Mandala

October Exhibition

Got to choose a painting for the postcard and for images on guide maps etc..

Picasso said,  "All art is a lie in search of the truth."

Balthus said, "Painting is a language not easily translated into another."

I say, "People that wish to sell their art make up stories to connect their visual language to the audience's more oral tradition."

Anyway I have to put stuff into a sort of order and put a story to it.  This year I am thinking of using a drawing, a colored drawing for my selling image.

Black Ship Skip Mandala

Yarn Bombing

It seems that the Japanese have been yarn bombing for some time, even before it has become recently popular.

Funny first week of rainy season this year, almost rain, then bitter cold rain then a nice weekend.

Fukushima artist

There is a very interesting instillation in gallery Higure in Yanaka, on the cross street, near the bottom of the Yanaka Ginza steps.  It is moving instillation and if you happen to be walking around Yanaka it is worth a visit.  till the 16th

knives

If you poke around the kitchen in an old Japanese house you will probably find the knives that no one uses but are too good to throw out.  They may already be red with rust.  They are made with good carbon steel.  They will take an edge better than any stainless steel thing made.  And they are genus in their construction and their design.  One wide bladed square ender for vegetables, one shorter, with a point, thick thick steel for popping the heads off of fish, and cleaning them out, and a long slender pointed blade for thin slicing sushi.  These knives evolved with Japanese cooking, and like so many old things Japanese are simply perfect, but also ferociously labor intensive.

You can not just pick these knives up and use them.  It takes practice and study  They also take care, to keep them from rusting, and to keep them razor sharp.  This is probably the reason that they are still in the old kitchens, and the reason they are rusting away as no one in the family uses them.  People use western styled stainless blades that work OK, not nearly as well, or as sharp, but OK.  I even see sushi chiefs using western styled knives these days.

I have found a few great blades in old junk shops for almost nothing, and am trying to fix them up for use.  The one below rotted the steel out of the handle.  The blade is great, but it is a bit of a challenge to figure a way to get a handle on it.