Juki Iida Scroll

by aleks

Miller Library - 6/20/13
 Juki Iida scroll:
photo by Dewey Webster 

Thank you Miller Library People, especially Martha Ferguson, for hosting our last Cont. Ed. and for taking the time and trouble of putting Juki Iida's scroll out on display, for getting out the books and articles on Japanese Gardens for us to explore, thank you for the library tour -  what a delicious meeting that was, and all that before I even mention the tea, strawberries, brownies and cookies!

I have been a guide for almost 10 years, and this was the first time I saw DA SCROLL, having heard so much about it before. With the exception of a few people who were present at the ceremony of  Dick Yamasaki (who was responsible for SJG stone setting work in 1960) presenting Miller Library with the scroll several years ago - up until then it was in his possession-  most of us, docents,  never saw it.

I was surprised to find out that the scroll doesn't have 'beginning, middle and end', like most 'telling the story' scrolls do - it is more like assembly of ideas and sketches that Mr. Iida painted in ink during his evenings at the Holland Hotel in Seattle in 1959, in preparation for building the Seattle Japanese Garden.

Among the books and articles Miller Library's staff displayed for our training was an article written in February 1974 by Juki Iida himself (translated by Glenn T. Webb) for 'Niwa' - a prestigious journal for professional gardeners in Japan.

I'm not sure if this thorough account of Mr. Iida's  experiences of building our Garden is digitalized at Milers Library's webpage (couldn't locate it; will provide a link if it is) - you can get hard copies of it from Miller Library; it's listed as 'The Japanese Garden at the University of Washington' by Juki Iida (1889-1977);  here are some excerpts:

[...] As soon as I heard about the project I was interested in it, but two huge obstacles seemed to stand in the way: I could not imagine how a large scale, formal (shin-style) Japanese garden could be built outside of Japan where Japanese stones, trees and plants would not be available and where only non-Japanese and foreign-born Japanese gardeners would be at my disposal as construction crew members. I went into this project fully expecting it to fail because of these two problems. How wrong I was!  Making this garden has been the greatest lesson of my life, and for this reason I will be forever grateful that fate chose me to do it. 

[...] The garden site covers five acres of land, or a little over 6000 tsubo. It is long and narrow from north to south, with a park road bordering its east side. The south to northwest section of the land slopes downward from the western boundary and has a forest of various kinds of trees. At the base of the slpe is a marsh.

Miller Library 6 /20/13  - that's is how Iida's scroll is stored, when NOT on display: in two boxes

[...] Selection of the landscape gardeners and woodworker was done according to the American custom, with people interested in those jobs submitting applications. But I insisted from the first that I be allowed to meet the applicants and see their work. After all, I had to be sure that whoever was chosen had the skills and, above all, the proper attitude, the purity of mind, to handle the job.

Miller Library - 6/20/13: Juki Iida's signature, at the lower bottom left of the scroll

love the following fragment,  for I long suspected it (while apologizing for the SJG colors throughout  April and May tours), and especially  working now, in 2013,  on the Plant Committee :) - thanks, Lynnda, for pointing this fragment out:

[...] The one thing we had in great abundance was the Washington State flowering tree, the rhododendron. I therefore was obliged to use these gaudy plants, but I tried to hold the color down as much as possible.

From Miller Library archives 6/20/13: pic from SJG photo-album 1960 - looks like construction of  zig-zag bridge?

[...] I had been alerted that the Crown Prince and Princess might be visiting the garden and that they would be prepared to plant the trees of their respective families - the white cherry and the white birch.  Sites for those trees were selected. Finally, on June 5. 1960, the garden was opened. That morning a plaque, designed by Calligraphy Master Ryutaro Higashi at the request of the Mayor of Tokyo, Mr. Azuma, arrived by airmail. The plaque read "Peace and Tranquility" (wake), and it was put in place under the gable of the teahouse by Seattle city officials.  [...]

From Miller Library archives 6/20/13: pic from SJG photo-album 1960 -Suhama building?

Other interesting things on the topic:
The Miller Library page on the Iida's scroll here:
http://depts.washington.edu/hortlib/collections/scroll.shtml

The Seattle Times 'Arboretum Dilemma: Access Or Authenticity?' article from 1997:
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19971104&slug=2571402

2002 article from Seattle Times on 'A Seattle treasure lovingly restored':
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20020327&slug=parked27

More Seattle Times articles on SJG here:
http://search.nwsource.com/search?offset=100&from=stnv2&similarto=MB%3A2017667806

Yakima students compose haiku in the Garden

by Cara and aleks

SJG • 5/31/13 - 8th graders from Franklin Middle School in Yakima visiting the Garden

Welcome to this place

where beauty will inspire you -

Be one with nature

Haiku composed collectively by Franklin Middle School 
8th grade students in docent Cara's group

aleks: In May and June Seattle Japanese Garden gets many visitors from schools, some close by and some not so close; there are teachers who bring their pupils to the Garden every year, some because they study Pacific Rim countries, some because they study Japanese language and culture, and some just because.

Franklin Middle School in Yakima is one of those schools -  each year teacher  Mike Fry brings his 8th graders all the way to Seattle to experience Japanese Garden and culture to complement their Japanese studies. The students had to be in school at 6:30 am yesterday, Friday, and left on the bus at 7:15 to make it for the 11:00 am tour.  They were very bright and open to the experience and it was an immense pleasure to share the Garden with them. After the Garden tour they headed to Westlake mall to explore a Japanese shop there and for lunch in Uwajimaya - a huge Japanese grocery/gift/eatery center in International District.

Creative use of  pause...After the tour docent Cara told me that her group's haiku-writing naturally rose from the need to pause when Bev's and my groups were occupying the spots Cara intended to take her visitors to, and they were forced to wait...

Cara: We were in the azumaya, talking about how shelters are used for creative reflection. As the students looked out onto the garden, I asked if they knew about haiku, and we reviewed its form. 'Welcome to this place.' I nudged them with that sentence. They became quiet - a few gestured with fingers as they silently counted the syllables in thoughts they weren't ready to share out loud. A few moments later, someone offered 'where beauty will inspire you.'  Students took turns reciting the two lines and worked together to refine them. After another quiet moment, 'Be one with nature' was offered by another student. We recited our 17-syllable poem again and again, and later, it was fun to have an audience as another group approached us at the end of our garden stroll. I won't ever forget the haiku, or the wonderful group that created it.

aleks: How did you review the haiku form?  Did the students know anything about haiku, or did you have to explain from the beginning?

Cara: I just asked them to tell me what a haiku was, and students volunteered what they'd learned, according to one  student, 'in the fourth grade'. Although I didn't make sure everyone understood the 5 - 7 - 5 structure, it didn't take long for the group to put their creative juices together to compose their own haiku.

SJG  • 5/26/13 -styrax obassia - Japanese snow bell tree
at the SE corner of the Tea House garden blooming profusely now

Hi to Franklin Middle School Yakima students from the guides in SJG! waving hands - please visit us again!

Daily tours June through September!

by aleks

Every time I'm in Portland, OR or Vancouver, B.C. I take guided tours of their Chinese and Japanese Gardens. I take it, because they are available, almost hour on the hour, and I always learn something new, and always think that I wish our Garden was that well staffed - with an exception of the 50th anniversary of the Garden last year we usually only offer weekend and wednesday tours, alas.

SJG • 5/20/13

So the most recent email from Mary (our tour coordinator), accompanying June public tour schedule,  put a smile on my face:

Good afternoon, Garden guides. 

June through September your Public Tours are available to lucky visitors

on a daily basis!   Those months bring us the most visitors from far away

places and the same four months attract very few Private Tour requests. 

Summer offers many opportunities for you to spread the Japanese

Garden message throughout our small world. 

Beginning June 1^st, Public Tours are scheduled at 12:30 pm every day! 

On Saturdays and Sundays, there will still be the added tour at 2:30 pm. [...]

There are 40 Public Tour assignments on the June schedule. 

With 43 veteran guides self designated as active and available, and the

addition of 15 newly trained guides, staffing this schedule should be easy

as a summer breeze!  Thanks very much to each of you for your close

attention to Garden needs during this busy part of the season.   Mary

• • • • • 

SJG • 5/20/13

 See you in the Garden!

晴耕雨読 (seiko udoku) 

Literally: clear sky, cultivate, rainy, reading 

Meaning: Farm when it's sunny, read when it rains.

Read more: http://www.linguanaut.com/japanese_sayings.htm#ixzz2U2xZDGTK

Invitation to Noh Performances

by Keiko P.
One of the most prominent young Noh Performer, TAKEDA Munenori is coming to this area from Japan. His performing schedule is listed at the end. At these performances, they plan to explain noh and translate the story of the play in English .









Noh is Japanese traditional play. The actors' movements are slow and full of rituals; they are  symbolical and spiritual. Traditionally, the players were all males. Dinah Birch describes noh in The Oxford Companion to English Literature (7 ed.) as below. 

Nōh plays 
A form of ceremonial, ritualistic drama peculiar to Japan, slow, symbolical, and spiritual in character. The style originated in the 14th century, was perfected in the 15th, and flourished during the Edo or Tokugawa period (1603–1868). It has since been revived. The plays are short (one or two acts), in prose and verse, and a chorus contributes comments. The scenery and props are minimal, though the masks and costumes are often lavish. They were formerly acted only at the shōgun's court, five or six in succession, presenting a complete life drama, beginning with a play of the divine age, then a battle piece, a ‘play of women’, a psychological piece (dealing with the sins and struggles of mortals), a morality, and finally a congratulatory piece, praising the shōgun's lords and reign. The text was complemented by symbolic gestures, chanting, and music. About 200 Nōh plays are extant. Of these the most interesting are the psychological pieces, in which some type of human character or some intense emotion is taken as the subject. In various respects the Nōh plays are comparable with the early Greek drama. Both Ezra *Pound and W. B. *Yeats were much influenced by the Nōh theatre: in ‘Certain Noble Plays of Japan’ (1916), Yeats describes the impact of its ritual, simplicity, and stylization on his own plays.

The dates and locations of local noh play are as below. Please visit http://www.sugoiexperiencejapan.com/ to purchase your tickets. 

(1) Wednesday, June 26th at Jewel Box Theatre, Poulsbo, WA
（Exhibit 7:00 - 8:30pm）
(2) Friday, June 28th at Nikkei place, Vancouver, BC, Canada
（Exhibit 6:00 - 7:30pm）
(3) Saturday June 29th at Act Theatre, Seattle, WA
（Exhibit  2:00 - 3:30pm）
(4) Sunday, June 30th at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Bainbridge
Island, WA （Exhibit 6:00 - 7:30pm）


For those of you curious to see what noh-play looks like, here is one example of Youtube video I found on noh. 



Reference: Birch, Dinah. "Noh Plays." The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 7th ed. Oxford University Press, 2009. Web. 

Almost everything in bloom now

by aleks

SJG • 5/6/13 - Rh, Altaclarence, area F

'The Garden speaks for itself', as Mary N. put it in her recent email for current assignments...  You can guide without saying much, as visitors are too busy taking all of it in.

SJG • 5/6/13 - Rh. 'Mars' in V area

It will be like this for the reminder of May and some of June: rhododendrons, azaleas, wisteria and irises all on show.

SJG • 5/6/13 - Rhododendron augustinii • rhododendron; Area W (tea House Garden)

Other things Japanese things happening around town:

SJG • 5/6/13 - Rh.arnoldiana, at the foothils of the Garden

• SAAM exhibition: Legends, Tales, Poetry: Visual Narrative in Japanese Art
December 22, 2012–July 21, 2013
We just did DIY tour of the SJG today for the guides and it was a hoot, thanks to Shizue-san and Dewey-san. Keiko-san  couldn't make it, due to the work pressures, but we thank her for the intent!
http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/exhibit/exhibitDetail.asp?eventID=25557

SJG • 5/6/13 - Rh.  Dawn in L area, along the E path

• Second Thursday Japanese Films : The Tale of Genji
June 13, 2013; 7–9 pm; Stimson Auditorium
The Tale of Genji (1987) Dir. Gisaburo Sugii

Based on the novel by Murasaki Shikibu. Genji, the son of the emperor, is charming and good looking but cannot stop pursuing his father's young and beautiful bride. Genji wanders from one affair to another, seeking fulfillment.
http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/calendar/eventDetail.asp?eventID=25878&month=5&day=13&year=2013

SJG  • 5/6/13 - Rh. moonbeam in V area; long before G and Z  bloom, due to shade

• BOOK READING: Yokohama Yankee: My Family’s Five Generations as Outsiders in Japan by Leslie Helm | Saturday, May 18 @ 4pm

Leslie Helm’s decision to adopt Japanese children launches him on a personal journey through his family’s 140 years in Japan, beginning with his German great grandfather, who worked as a military adviser in 1870 and defied custom to marry his Japanese mistress. The family’s poignant experiences of love and war help Helm learn to embrace his Japanese and American heritage. This is the first book to look at Japan across five generations with perspective that is both from the inside and through foreign eyes. Helm draws on his great grandfather’s unpublished memoir and a wealth of primary source material to bring his family history to life.
Free | In the Tateuchi Story Theatre at The Wing

http://www.wingluke.org/events/upcoming.htm

Field Trip for docents to SAAM next Thursday

Konnichiwa!

Our meet-up for a "do-it-ourselves" tour the Japanese Exhibit at Seattle Asian Art Museum is set for THURSDAY MAY 9 at 10:30.

Since the Museum is in Volunteer Park, which is so close to the Garden, car pooling is not necessary. Indeed, check METRO PLANNER to see how to reach it by public transportation.

http://tripplanner.kingcounty.gov/cgi-bin/itin_page.pl?resptype=U

In case you can not join us, but still wish a tour, public tours are given each Saturday at 11:30.

Sayonara

Dewey W.,  docent
Seattle Japanese Garden

• Thank you docents Shizue-san and Keiko-san for help with this tour!
•• Cliff-notes for 'Tale of Genji' (prominently displayed at this tour) here:
http://www.taleofgenji.org/summary.html

SJG • 5/1/13 - Kasuga lantern at the fork of the Main and E and W paths

SJG • 5/1/13 - magnolia along the W Path