Butoh dance at Velocity & Japanese music in Wing Luke

The two in post title ARE SEPARATE events - please look below for info, dates, and contacts. Please note that Garden docent Joan Laage performs Silver Lining with Kaoru Okumura on Butoh Festival Saturday’s program (October 27). 

Also: SJG Maple Viewing this Sunday, October 14! Come and see our magnificent maples' leaves turning.  aleks

• • • • • 

DAIPANbutoh Collective presents
Seattle Butoh Festival 2012
October 22-28, 2012
Velocity Dance Center
1621 12th Avenue
Guest artists: SU-EN Butoh Company (Sweden) & Atsushi Takenouchi –Jinen Butoh(Japan/Paris)


www.brownpapertickets.com
www.daipanbutoh.com
helisdancing@hotmail.com

October 22  7 pm  Artist Talk featuring SU-EN
October 23-28  (various times) Workshops with SU-EN and Atsushi
October 26 & 27   8 pm  Performances by SU-EN, Atsushi and members of DAIPAN
October 28  6 pm  Butoh Open:
     Workshop participant’s perform their own works plus a piece by Seattlite Vanessa Skantze
Plus Portland Festival Extension October 29-November 2 with guest Atsushi Takenouchi

Garden docent Joan Laage performs Silver Lining with Kaoru Okumura on Saturday’s program (October 27).

4Culture and Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs support
DAIPANbutoh is a Shunpike Partner

photos (coming):
SU-EN (photo by Gunnar H Stening)
Atsushi Takenouchi (Karolina Bieszczad)

• • • • •

The Hakakumei Shakuhachi dojo in Seattle is sponsoring a performance featuring Kakizakai Kaoru (shakuhachi) and Mitsuki Dazai (koto) in Seattle on October 27, 2012 at 8pm.  These virtuoso performers will be playing a mix of old and new music, Japanese folk tunes, modern duets and classic Zen pieces.  The concert will be held at the Tateuchi Story Theater inside the Wing Luke Museum, 719 South King Street in the International District.  This will be a popular event and seating is limited.

In addition, Kakizakai Sensei will be offering private shakuhachi instruction and workshops during his visit from Thursday 10/25 through Sunday 10/28.  For more information, including advanced ticket purchase information for the concert, go to www.hakakumei.org.

Photo exhibition opening Sunday, October 7th

by aleks

Coming very soon (THIS Sunday) and open to everyone who wants to see it: 

Photo Exhibition: IMPRESSIONS WITHOUT WALLS

October 7, 2-5 pm in Tateuchi Community Room, SJG

Photographs from Ray Pfortner's spring workshop in Seattle Japanese Garden.

Photo by Mary Ann Cahlill

Come and see what the students saw through their lenses - some of the angles will delight or surprise you, as they show the Garden the way you may never saw it.  All the pics in this post are from the upcoming exhibition.

The exhibition will be open until the Garden closes this season (Nov. 12);  if you are in the Garden ask the entrance Gate people if there is someone available to show you the photographs (Tateuchi Community Room is not always open due to lack of supervision);  or, if you took a guided tour ask your guide about it.  The letter (below) from Mary, who schedules the tours,  encourages docents to share the exhibition with you, but it may not always fit the guide's tour plan, so ask!  (The class Mary mentions at the end of her letter is described in the previous blog-post).

Photo by Marcia M. Mueller

Good afternoon, Garden guides. 
Currently all Public and Private Tours during September are fully staffed by you! 


Any time you’re at the Garden, whether you’re attending a meeting or event, or guiding a personal, Private, or Public Tour, you’re invited to share with your guests the exciting new “Impressions Without Walls” photo exhibit in the Tateuchi Community Room (TCR).  It will be available through the end of the 2012 season.    

These Japanese Garden images were captured by photographers participating in Ray Pfortner’s “Mixed Media Photography Workshop” this past Spring.  Each photographer submitted 8 images for judging, and were invited to frame their top 3 images for exhibition in this show.   It’s a great collection of late Winter/early Spring Garden impressions. 

And every viewer is invited to choose their personal “best in show” and place a ballot in the “People’s Choice” ballot box on the TCR counter. 

The prints, framed or unframed, are available for purchase and contact info for each photographer is included for that purpose.  All photographers have offered to donate 30% of any purchase to the Japanese Garden! 

If you’d like to view the exhibit and/or share it with others, just ask the cashier on duty to open the TCR for you.  You’ll be responsible for monitoring the room until you close it up again.  This is a great idea for beginning or ending any tour or visit to the Garden.  On some weekend days, the photographers themselves will be staffing the TCR and making the exhibit available for everyone.    

If you feel inspired to contribute to a future exhibit consider registering for Ray’s next “Mixed Media Photography Workshop” which takes place in mid to late October.  A photo show for this Autumn workshop is planned to coincide with opening of the 2013 season! 
It’s class #89288; you can register at the Garden or on the Seattle Parks website.  It’s $220. (or $200. if you have a Garden annual pass.)

Meanwhile, enjoy!           
Mary

Photo by Mireille Kools

Photo by Dan Driscoll

Photo workshop and exhibition coming to SJG

by aleks
There was a spring photo workshop with  Ray Pfortner in Japanese Garden, and the exhibition of the top photos from his class is about to be mounted on Sunday, October 7, 2-5 pm in Tateuchi Community Room (more on the exhibition in the next post, coming in a few days). The fall photo workshop is coming to the Garden soon and here is info from Ray's flyer, if you didn't see it:

Mixed-Media Photography workshop

For All Visual Artists at the Seattle Japanese Garden

With Ray Pfortner, Educator & Photographer

Improve your camera and composition skills - no matter what your final art medium - by photographing the Japanese Garden with exclusive early morning and evening access at the peak of fall foliage. Learn by doing - shooting, sharing the test results for online and in-class critiques, having your work juried, and by exhibiting your art whether a framed photograph, painting, drawing or in some other technique.

Be part of a juried, mixed-media show at the Garden in 2013 - and explore how to prepare your work for exhibiting from selecting and pricing to framing and hanging.

For all visual artists with any camera and any level of experience who want to get more out of their camera   and do more with their photography, whether making photographs for framing or for artist's reference to render later in your medium of choice.


Bring 5 samples of your work to the first Saturday session, bring your camera, extra batteries, your battery chargers, extra memory cards and warm clothing to both Saturday sessions.

Friday, October 12, 6:30-8:30 pm

Saturday, October 13 & 27, 7-11am & 2-6pm

Tuition: $220 ($200 for Garden Members)

Materials: $20

Space is limited to 12. 

To register contact Cheryl at 306-386-9106 or cheryl.brown@seattle.gov

For more information about the workshop: raypfortner@gmail.com

Ro learn about Ray and his work: RayPfortner.com

Madame Secretary takes her camera to Japanese Garden

by aleks
Jeanne P.,  Unit 86 Secretary went to the Garden equipped with her camera 2 days ago; and just as well... She met 'Dirty Harry, the heron'  while poking around:

SJG • 9/20/12 - Heron meets a person. Photo by Jeanne P.

I asked if it's ok to post this great pic of her. Here is Jeanne's reply:

Of course you can post it. I wish it were better. I just thought it was charming that this young man seemed to be communicating with the heron he was photographing, and the heron was so calm. I have another one you might like. Same heron with a family and a bunch of koi.

This is the other photo Madame Secretary  took - same heron with a family and a bunch of koi:

SJG • 9/20/12 - Heron meets a family... Photo by Jeanne P.

• • • •
P.S. If you saw a ghost-post about upcoming photo exhibition and workshop with Ray Pfortner  that disappeared before your very own (lying) eyes...  Well, you are NOT feeble-minded or  crazy. At all!  It was there, but I  had to take the post down, because I had trouble with placing the text and the photos, especially. It will re-appear as soon as i can fix it with Ray's help.  The photo-exhibition from a spring workshop is October 7th, Sunday, 2-5 pm. More info coming. So stay tuned, please.

Keiro-No-Hi - Respect for the Elders

by aleks
I stopped by the Garden to participate a bit in one of the most touching Japanese celebrations: keiro-no-hi, or Respect-for-the-Aged Day. It's a national holiday in Japan and according to the Cabinet Office of the Japanese Government, keiro-no-hi is defined as “The day to give respect to the elderly, who have served society for many years, and celebrate their longevity.”

SJG • 9/17/12 - Tankokai Tea Ceremony (second of 3 that day) in front of Tateuchi Community Room - the senior adults are  viewing from inside

Our western, so called  'culture' is pretty disrespectful to elders if you ask me, so it is extremely refreshing that Seattle Parks and Recreation Department finds it important to honor the wisdom and experience of grey headed fellow humans by offering a free welcome day of music, tea ceremonies and refreshments in a beautiful setting of the Garden that is getting gently 'autumnal' itself at this time of the year.

SJG • 9/17/12  - Respect for the Elders Day

I do not know much about this grand Keiro-No-Hi tradition, except for the experience of it in our Japanese Garden, so here are a few 'lifts' from better sources of information:

From Suite-101, shared free lance publishing site: Japan's Keiro no Hi can be traced back as far as 1947, but it became increasingly popular around the country and was declared a national holiday in 1966. Originally it occurred every September 15, but beginning in 2003 it was changed to the third Monday in September in order to offer a long weekend.

Keiro No Hi Traditions
The holiday is born out of a traditional Confucian value of respect for one's elders. In some neighborhoods, volunteers deliver free lunches around the area to elderly neighbors and friends. Smaller villages often hold "keirokai" ceremonies in which school children and young people sing and dance as part of a celebration for their elders, that also includes a free lunch, tea and dessert for the attendees. [...]

SJG • 9/17/12 - Midori Kono Thiel just finished her second koto performance
in the Yamada style; standing with Rachel Harris - SJG events coordinator
 Thank you, Rachel, for a great day! 

TsukuBlog has detailed historical explanation of the holiday by Avi Landau, complete with Japanese 'meaning' that is derived from how the ages are written in Kanji characters: it goes to 100 y.o. so check it yourself:

The 60th year (kanreki, 還暦), meaning a return to the beginning of the cycle, as it heralds completing the path through the full five cycles of the Sino-Japanese zodiac (jikkan-junishi), and coming back once again to the original combination of signs that you were born with. This event is commonly celebrated throughout East-Asia.

The 70th year (koki, 古希), the name of which derives from a popular verse by the great Chinese poet Tufu (Toho, 杜甫, in Japanese). The poem goes: Jinsei nanaju korai mare nari (人生七十古来稀なり),meaning that (in those days) reaching the age of 70 was a rare occurrence. [...]

SJG • 9/17/12  - Respect for the Elders Day...

No wonder that Japan is one of the countries with the longest life expectancy in the world:).  Thanks Midori,  Seattle Tankokai and Seattle Parks!

I found this amazing flowers blooming by the E path, area I. Have no clue what it is - hopefully will find out to tell you.

• UPDATE on flowers, from Liz, commenting below: The flowers are Colchicum, also known as Autumn Crocus (although not related to crocus at all).  Thanks Liz!  More on the plant here on wikipedia : [...] Its leaves, corm and seeds are poisonous. Murderess Catherine Wilson is thought to have used it to poison a number of victims in the 19th century. [...]

O-tsukimi haiku

I missed the Haiku Contest final reading, but here is Michael Dylan Welch's report [of  Haiku Northwest, which organized the contest] and his Facebook post regarding the event; he and Tanya McDonald read aloud 28 poems out of the 155 poems that were submitted that night.  aleks (+ my pics to Michael's text)

SJG • 9/1/12 - Tankokai Tea ceremony just ended in Shoseian Teahouse

Seattle Japanese Garden Moonviewing Haiku Contest

September 1, 2012

Tanya McDonald and Michael Dylan Welch, Judges

• First Place:

Moonbeams fall

through maple leaves—

moth wings shimmer

Frank Edwards

• Second Place:

moon beams stream

through the open bedroom window

I light your candle

Kerry Campbell

• Third Place:

thirty-five-watt bulb

a bare moon above the sink

warm hand clasping mine

Andrew Savage

You will find additional poems read during o-tsukimi here....

• • • • •

SJG • 9/1/12 - The crowds; people also occupied  all rails of the zigzag bridge,
and more standing wherever they could fit  

From Michael's Facebook post: An amazing thing happened at last night's moonviewing event at the Seattle Japanese Garden, attended by about 600 people. Tanya McDonald and I judged a few hundred entries for the haiku contest, and one of the entries had a surprise extra line at the end of it. I knew immediately that I had to read it when we announced all the awards. 

SJG • 9/1/12 - I waited a long time to get this pic people-less:)

After a full evening of Japanese cultural performances and music, and the launching of candle-boats onto the pond after dark, as the full moon rose over the pines, Tanya and I read a selection of poems, and then announced the top three winners, with much laughter and cheering. 


After that, I had that additional poem to read. I said the person's name first, and asked if he was present. Matthew came up to the front and I asked him privately (everyone could see, but no one could hear) if he definitely wanted me to read what he submitted, and he said yes. This is what I read, his poem about the moon:

I'll light your way

in every phase of life.

My world revolves about you.

Franklin, will you marry me?

And there, in front of 600 people, they hugged intensely while the audience burst into cheers and applause. And Franklin said yes. What's more, completely unscripted, the person who we had just given first place to in the haiku contest was also Franklin. What a wonderful way to end a spectacular moonviewing event!
Michael Dylan Welch

SJG • 9/1/12 - Candle-boats on the pond after dark, my poor camera tried for you...