Nagoya Day 27: The「と」Particle, Charades and Haikus

Today I’m gonna recap a little of the lessons I learnt today, starting with the most interesting thing: Haikus.

Haiku (俳句)

The Haiku is a short poem with 3 constraints. First, and most obviously, are the syllables. The haiku follows a 5,7,5-syllable structure. The next constraint is that it needs to make some reference to the seasons (autumn, winter, spring, summer). and lastly, there needs to be a cutting word to indicate contrast in ideas or a new idea being introduced. For example:

草臥れて                 When worn out
宿かるころや       And seeking an inn:
藤の花                     Wisteria flower

– 松尾芭蕉 (Matsuo Bashō)

In this situation, the wisteria flower serves as a reference to nature. The hardiness of the plant could mean lots of things, possibly as inspiration to the weary traveler, or possibly the attitude the traveler took when seeking the inn.

Some notes on Japanese aesthetics:

According to my teacher, the Japanese like to create words of 4 syllables. For example, たとえば、コンビニ、あつめる、ここのか. As a result, the use of 5 & 7 syllables creates an uneven irregular aural experience for the listener.

In addition, Bashō leaves out just enough information to give us the setting, but not telling us about the real feelings of the traveler. The wisteria flower invokes a deep imagery in our minds, and we’re left to fill in the blanks.

We also had a little debate in class about the famous haiku by Bashō on the frog in an ancient pond:

 

 

 

 

古池や　　　An old pond
蛙飛び込む     Frog jumps into
水の音              The sound of water

The professor translated it this way:

Serene ancient pond
In dives a lonely toad
Sound of the water.

The poem could be translated in so many ways depending on the interpretation of the words. In Japanese, it is ambiguous as to whether something is in plural or singular form, so it is purely up to the reader to decide. Also, the simplicity of the poem is such that it strips away all the complex interpretive qualities that we attach to an event and states it simply as it is. As a result, we start introducing our own conceptions of what the piece means and that makes the piece of art complete.

The 「と」Particle

The と particle, in addition to meaning “and”, can also be used to connect two events in another way. Let’s say “A と B”, then the sentence structure is as follows:

When A happens, B always happens.

The idea is something like an inevitable consequence caused by natural disasters, phenomena, or human made inevitable consequences. Example:

秋になると、天気が寒くなります。
When autumn arrives, the weather gets colder.

本を読むと、眠くなる。
When I read a book, I become sleepy.

An important grammatical point: When B happens to be an いーadjective, the い will be changed to a くなる. For example おいしい　will be conjugated to be おいしくなる. If B is a なーadjective, then a になる will be attached to it. For example, 元気 will be conjugated to 元気になる. Here are more sample sentences:

電気を点けると、明るくなります。
When the light is turned on, it becomes bright

お酒を飲み過ぎると、頭が痛くなります。
When I drink a lot of sake, my head starts to hurt.

The particle と can be used to explain directions too. For example:

ますぐいくと、銀行があります。
When you go straight, there will be a bank.

右行くと、花屋さんがいます。
When you turn right, there will be a florist.

Charades

In grammar class, we played charades! This was so fun. Essentially, the teacher cut out sample sentences, and made us act them out. Then everyone else had to guess the sentence, grammar included. In our guesses, we had to use 「ながら」, which is used when one person does two things at the same time. For example:

キムさんは音楽を開きながら、勉強しています。
While Kim listens to music, she studies as well.

I’m definitely gonna try this out when I get back to Singapore.

For the next post, I’m going to do a quick reflection on life as a student at Nanzan, which should provide a good summary of what I’m really doing here. Also, I’ll write about some challenges I’m facing, particularly in studying, money and time management. Cheerios!

 

Nagoya Day 26: Transitivity Pairs「他動詞と自動詞」

My time here in Japan is about learning Japanese after all, so this post will be on a new grammar point I’m learning.

他動詞：Transitive Verbs – Action done by someone
自動詞：Intransitive Verbs – Action done to the object

What’s important about this?

Transitive verbs describe activities. Intransitive verbs describe changes.

For example: “落とす(otosu): To drop” v.s. “落ちる(ochiru): Something drops”.

When treated with a ~ている, they have different effects. Transitive verbs with a ~ている added to it describe states of action, while intransitive verbs with a ~ている added to it describe states of being. Thus, continuing with the previous example: 落としている would describe something in the process of falling, while 落ちている would describe something that has fallen.

The trouble comes when trying to memorize all the different forms for transitive and intransitive verbs. They don’t really have a clear pattern that is common to all of them. Here’s a list to give you an idea.

TransitiveIntransitive
開ける (akeru)　　　開く(aku)
閉める (shimeru)　　閉まる (shimaru)
沸かす (wakasu) 　　沸く(waku)
点ける (tsukeru) 　　点く(tsuku)
壊す (kowasu) 　　　壊れる (kowareru)
汚す (yogosu)      　　汚れる (yogoreru)
出す (dasu) 　　　　出る (deru)
入れる (ireru) 　　　入る (hairu)
消す (kesu) 　　　　消える (kieru)

Initial Strategy

This will be my initial strategy: As I read out the word, I will act it out. For example, for 開ける(akeru), I will act out opening the door and for 開く(aku), I will act out the door being opened. Iterate a few times, and hopefully it sinks in. The target is to have the word come so naturally that I don’t have to think about it anymore.

To combine my previous strategies, I will also need to create the environment to use these words. Thus, when I see something in a particular state of being, I will try to call it out, for example, in the state of being broken, or in the midst of breaking something.

Righto, got a Kanji test tomorrow. Strategy? I’ve tried writing them down and reciting them as I wrote them. I’m off to bed now, but when I wake up, I’ll use some flash cards to try writing them out in 2 ways. One, when looking at the hiragana, I try to write the kanji, and next, when looking at the kanji, I try to write the hiragana.

The most rewarding thing about studying a language, is when in the end, you find a use for it almost immediately, and you’re able to have someone understand what you’re saying. It’s so addictive!!

 

Nagoya Day 25: Magome, Tsumago

The days pass by really quickly. In a flash, it is already Sunday and the 4th week of classes in Nagoya is about to start. I came back from a 4-hour karaoke session all tired and I just crashed in bed. Yesterday, the Nanzan exchange students group went to Magome and Tsumago as part of a sightseeing trip. It was a great break from the everyday pressures of studying, and the Japanese students who came along were pretty great.

The old towns of Magome and Tsumago were preserved from the old Edo period and they served as post towns where travellers could stop by and rest for the night. I think of it like those epic Lord of the Ring journeys where the travellers have to stop by in the middle of their adventure in a quaint little outpost. The houses have a rustic wood feel to it, slightly unfurnished, unfinished, worn out – in the spirit of wabi-sabi. The cobbled pathways and sloping hills made you feel like you were transported to another age. I think though, the 3-hour bus ride had some part to play in my imagination.

Magome-juku: Some Japanese Calligraphy

The old streets of Magome-juku

Still functioning water wheel

The houses have a unique rustic feel to them too. This one’s a yado 宿, or a small hostel for travellers passing by. The gardens are very precisely curated, and the auburn wood makes the hostel both elegant and rugged at the same time.

A yado 宿

Like in Kyoto, I saw gardeners in their element, one of them featured right here. He was patiently tending to a tree, and when tourists were observing his actions, he gave a few annoyed glances to the side, but went about his craft silently. I wonder what went on in his mind.

A gardener tending to the trees

Because of its heritage value, there are plenty of souvenir shops lined up along the main road, selling a variety of wooden crafts, のれん (those curtains that you see in front of many Japanese restaurants), fans, and foods unique to the area. For Magome, it was soba. There were 5-6 brands of soba from various parts of Gifu prefecture. The two towns try ice-cream too, but it ain’t spectacular.

I particularly enjoyed the gardens that sat in front of the houses. Each one was markedly different in their design and conception, refreshing to look at.

This one’s got a koi inside it, supposedly for good luck

This one with pretty pink and red flowers, and curated trees. A pathway through the middle very appealing to me. Not sure why.

I particularly enjoyed being able to talk to a food vendor and converse properly without stuttering too much. I got to know a bit about her shop and family. So her shop has been around for 30 years, and has famous celebrities coming to visit. She also has giant mushroom sculptures that were made from a really really long time ago. I can’t quite remember now, but she was very welcoming and gave us some 麦茶, which is barley tea, and some 漬け物, pickled food. It was perfect for the hot and slightly humid day and it was cool to experience some kind Japanese hospitality.

The stall vendor

The gang

A very curious sight was seeing 2 seemingly stray cats around the streets and being so tame. I don’t think they were stray because one of them had a collar, but they seemed to be left on their own agenda, probably like most cats would prefer. As I crouched, one of them went up to me, and gave a good long stretch, fur spiking up, before coming by my side. I think my heart melted there haha.

Ohhhhh cats ^^

Cat walking towards me hehe

At the end of the day, I’m glad to have made some new friends, one of which I had some good conversations with about graduation plans and learnt plenty of Japanese from.

Japanese travel buddy

I’ll end off this post with a funny Japanese translation I saw in a shop in Tsumago. They shouldn’t change a word of it hahaha.

“Each apple has been brought up carefully like his own baby by farmers in the village of apples. They are all crimson and very cheerful now. Putting it own your mouth, its sweetness and moderate sourness are wonderful. You must feel just like biting fresh nature itself. Please relish these pies which we baked, making much of such apples’ feelings. That is sure to fill you with a fresh taste.”

 

 

 

 

Nagoya Day 24: Craft Day (Again)

I can’t avoid crafts. The art of craft-making is patient, detailed and precise, and that lures me in every time. Yesterday, a few of my dorm mates and I made a trip down to Fukiage Hall where we checked out this handicraft fair, named Art & Heart 2014.

Art & Heart Handicraft Fair!

Funny tidbit: The demographic was largely elderly women. I felt a little awkward being there, but after awhile, it didn’t even matter cause there were so many crafts to admire.

The best part of the fair was that, for 500円, there were crafts to try out for yourself, and you get to bring them back! I chanced upon this little booth where they featured 5 different crafts. One was an alarm clock decorated with something similar to food samples. It looked like this:

Cute eh!

But I decided to go with this one instead, partially cause buttons seem to be much more useful maybe? I loved the felt texture too.

On the display

It seems rather easy to make though. First you sew the thread into round pieces of cloth, probably cut up from a huge piece, and then cover a round metal button with it. Next, you apply some super glue in the middle and press the other side of the metal button on it. Add a piece of leather, before adding a metal pin to it, all using super glue. Of course, I’m being kind of vague here, because I don’t actually know what they were called, but hopefully you get the idea. Up close, it looks like this:

Whee completed buttons!

Happy with my completed craft haha

Now I know how they are made, and that they don’t take too long to make. Of course, I took 5 minutes for the first button, but subsequent ones were much faster thank goodness. The next exciting thing? I was able to follow the instructions given by the teachers! They were using words that I just learnt, like 糸、結ぶ、選ぶ, and I was on the verge of hopping up and down when I understood what they were saying. Other new words were like “ボンド” (Super glue), ”リッボン” (Ribbon). Katakana is hard. Like they are not always obvious, but it takes some getting used to (慣れる).

The range of crafts they offered to teach.

Another really interesting thing I wanted to learn, was how to carve soaps. I was tempted to join in with Vimy, but I was watching the money in my pocket haha.

Vimy carving soap. It’s beautiful!!

Mm. I would love to try it out some day. Another challenge? Would be to try making these:

Rows and rows of leather miniatures!

Nagoya is indeed a place for crafts, and there are plenty of shops to show for it too. I’m definitely going to keep an eye out for more.

Nagoya Day 23: Japanese Aesthetics (Part 2)

My previous post on Japanese aesthetics was on suggestion, and this one will be on Irregularity. When the Chinese came over to Japan, they brought over their culture. With it came a fondness for symmetry and order. I went to Nara for a school trip this year and I made a visit to Horyuji temple, the world’s oldest wooden structure. I noticed that it wasn’t that interesting, because it didn’t seemed to rigid.

Horyuji Temple in Nara, with a distinctive Chinese influence

When I read this article on Japanese aesthetics, I realised that I may have been too acquainted with looking at Japanese craftsmanship to be able to appreciate Chinese architecture. The Japanese avoids symmetry and regularity arguably because they find them “constricting and obstructive” to suggestion and imagination.

There is a compelling case for irregularity in plenty of Japanese aesthetics. The tanka, a form of Japanese poetry, goes in “5,7,5,7,7” syllables. In the architectural plan for a monastery, they were perhaps unsettled by the symmetry because they shifted buildings off from the central axis.

Why is this though? As the poet Kenkō remarked, leaving something incomplete makes it interesting and gives one a feeling that there’s room for growth. We can look at ceramics for another example.

A perfectly formed round bowl is boring to the Japanese, for it lacks any trace of the individuality of the potter.

This reminds me of the origami making session I had yesterday. An international student made a plane that didn’t fly quite so straight as it should have, and instead of remarking like how most people would, that it was “okay”, they went, “that’s cute!”

It also reminds me of the ikebana lessons I’ve been having, where the teachers stressed on irregularity and balance. There can’t be too much rigidness, but there also can’t be too much flexibility. There needs to be something to rein it in.

Ikebana, the Rising Form, as part of my test.

If you join the three tips of the leaves, they form a triangle that is artistically appealing.

Before I go to class, a last word on irregularity:

The Sistine Chapel in the Vatican city is magnificent, but it asks our admiration rather than our participation; the stones of the Ryōanji, irregular in shape and position, by allowing us to participate in the creation of the garden may move us even more.

Ryoanji, as taken from TIME website.

Perhaps this is in the spirit of the age?

Nagoya Day 22: Revision and Conversations

This post will be about revision, partly because I have a grammar test tomorrow (and I’m rather weak in grammar), and about some conversations I had at the Japan Plaza, which shone light onto some aspects of Japanese cuisine and lots of new words to get acquainted with.

Revision

〜そうです (when reporting something you’ve heard of):

Essentially, you keep the word before 〜そうです in its dictionary form. So for 脱ぐ, if you heard someone took off his shoes, then it will be 靴を脱んだ（past tense )そうです。Other examples:

探す（さがす）：探すそうです
きれい：きれいだそうです
おいしい：おいしいそうです
先生：先生だそうです

〜って (when changing そうです to a more casual form):

You eliminate そうです, and add an 〜って behind.

探す：探すって
きれい：きれいだって

〜たら(if)

The sentence structure remains the same, yet there are varying degrees of subtleties. The general meaning remains: “If A happens, then B will happen”, ”Aたら, B”

The method of conjugations are as follows: First, convert to the past tense. Then use the following conversions

Example:

For なーadjectives:きれいーきれいだったら
For nouns: 猫ー猫だったら
For いーadjectives: おいしい：おいしいたら
For うーverbs: 買う：買ったら
For るーverbs: 食べる：食べたら

Now here are the differing degrees of subtleties:

First, the clause before たら describes something that could possibly happen, and the one after it describes a consequence which then follows.

But second, if there are two events that are very likely to happen, and the second event takes place right after the first event, then たら is an arranging of the two sentences in chronological order.

Example: 今晩、うちに帰ったら、電話します。
Tonight, when I come home, I’ll use the phone.

Lastly, if something is impossible, but just expressing a wish for it to happen, you use たら too.

Example: 猫だったら、一日中寝ているでしょう。
If I were a cat, I would sleep the whole day long.

Conversations

I spoke to two Japanese students at the Japan plaza, who said that nattō, 納豆(なっとう) or Japanese traditional fermented beans, is part of their daily meals. Some really great tasting food include mixing (混ぜる) kimchi and nattō together with tofu (豆腐) and some pork. Add some rice and you have a cheap and tasty お弁当 (obentō).

Another tasty combination? Japanese mushrooms (茸：きのこ) together with beansprouts (もやし).  Add a bit of shoyu, garlic and onions, and you’re set. So gonna try this out tomorrow. Bought some shimeji and enoki mushrooms, fingers crossed.

It is really easy to make katsu apparently, just mix flour (小麦粉：こむぎこ) and eggs, mix the meat in, coat it with bread crumbs, and finally put it in oil (油：あぶら).
(I’ll try my hand at translating: カツの作り方が簡単です。まず、卵と小麦粉を混ぜて、肉を入れて、肉の衣を付ける。最後、油にいれる。)

Apparently for shopping, you can go to the grocery stores at night and they have really good discounts of up to 40%. I bought a long strip of unagi for 500円, which could probably last me two meals. I was so so happy! So if you go to this shop called tachiya (たちや) at sunset (夕方), you can get really cheap ingredients for cooking. And if you go to the supermarket at around 9pm, they start slashing prices (価格：かかく) to get people to take them off the shelves.

We also talked about diet, specifically the grapefruit diet. So if you eat grapefruits, you feel less hungry (お腹が少しすいている). Regarding this sentence, I just spoke to my Japanese dorm mate and I found out that すいている comes from 空く(which means empty). Now this phrase makes so much sense.

The last thing that I found so useful? 易い X 難しい and 安い X 高い (The X represents two terms that are opposites of each other). Now I know how to represent something that is easy to do, like 宿題が易いですね (the homework is easy to do you know). I had never known how to express this besides using “kantan” or 簡単. There’s always a catharsis when you’re able to dispel some nagging words that you’ve always wanted to know but forgot when you opened the dictionary.

Meanwhile, in the Aichi-ken travel book, I found some really really cool factories that I wanna make a trip down to. There’s a Pocari sweat factory, miso factory, piano factory, nattō factory and a milk factory. Best thing? They are all free! I am gonna be making a trip down soon I hope, so watch out for pictures 🙂

Many thanks to this group of students at the Japan Plaza for introducing me to such interesting stuff, being patient with my struggles in Japanese, and having a cool conversation.

Many thanks to Ikue and Nao! ありがとう〜

 

Nagoya Day 21: A new studying style

Last night, after I posted my previous post on volleyball, I discovered a new way to study. It’s not revolutionary, and requires a bit of resilience, but this is the way language learning goes: Iterate intelligently.

By intelligently, I mean trying out word combinations that are out of your comfort zone, and guessing your way around. Because language is situational, you create situations for yourself to remember.

Create or be in a community

I already had a community created for me so I’m very grateful for this, but I found it very helpful to be in an environment where you can’t speak English and have to find your way around by explaining yourself in various ways.

I went to the Japan Plaza today, and met with 2 Japanese students where we chatted about a variety of things from religion to Japanese art, countries we’d like to travel to, what we do in our spare time, to my army experience. All these in Japanese. I had a paper and pencil ready, and whenever they said something I wasn’t sure, I would write it down first. Then they would try to explain it in a way that I could probably understand. If all fails, I would use the dictionary, but that is really the last resort. The side explanations are so important because it frames the experience of learning the word. If you just depend on the dictionary, you don’t have an immediate context to situate your word in and you can forget it pretty quickly.

Example:

生ける（いける）：To arrange flowers
葉っぱ（はっぱ）：Leaf
茎（くき）：Stem
曲がる（まがる）：To bend, curve

To form a sentence:
きれい花が欲しいたら、生ける時に茎をちょっと曲がる。
If you want pretty flowers, bend the stem slightly when you are arranging them.

In this way, it is a lot easier to get it in your head.

Last grammar point: There are 3 ways you can express obligation, or “must”

1. 〜かなくてはいけません：literally, if you don’t do ___, you can’t go
2. 〜かなくちゃ：Less formal, and not used in writing. Usually used in speech.
3. 〜かんとかん：Used only in speech, and only in Central Japan.

The last one was interesting because it’s almost like a dialect spread over a large area. I will try it out when I travel around the region after the program 🙂

Show and Tell

I think a great way to learn the language is just to show and tell. Invite other people to ask you questions, could be in English or Japanese, and just keep going. As you hit into obstacles, pen them down and ask for advice later on.

In class, we had a show and tell and it was great. We got to practice our listening skills, and at the same time, ask them questions when we were really bewildered about some things.

Show and tell session, so interesting to find out tidbits about other people’s lives.

I got to learn about new words and grammar I hadn’t known previously. For example,

として means “as”, like
“be famous as a writer”
“作家として有名である”

重要（じゅうよう）：important.

Righto, I’m gonna have to go off to class, and before that, a sneak preview into my next post later today, which will finally be on culture. じゃまたね〜

Ikebana, the Rising Form, as part of my test.

 

Nagoya Day 20: Volleyball Day

Yesterday, I went to play some volleyball. Sometime 3 years ago, a group of former high school and university volleyball players got together and formed a Nagoya International Volleyball Club (NIVC). The main purpose is for volleyball of course, but other aims include getting an international community together and making some friends along the way.

One fine day, I saw the advertisement in the Nagoya Calendar newsletter and immediately jumped on it. I sent in my email, and I got added into the NIVC Facebook group.

As I went with Paul & Remy to the place, we got hopelessly lost and veered off track. We wandered around for around an hour before finding the place.

When we entered, we were greeted by Shinichi and then Tetsu, the organiser of the event. It was filled with people, probably around 30 people? Here’s the gang:

NIVC Volleyball Gang

They grouped us into groups of 7 and named the teams after the nationalities of one of the team members. It didn’t matter that only one member of my team was from the UK, our team was named Team Great Britain. All in the name of fun hahaha.

Then we got down to playing. Game ends at 15 points, and the rule of deuce holds. I started to realise that this group took their game seriously. They knew the rules, they knew the rotation, and they knew strategy. We rotated positions, and took turns to spike the ball. This is a group that loves to have some good ol’ fun and laughter. There is rivalry, but it is all in good spirit. At the end of the game, you laugh off the mistakes and try harder next time.

Between breaks, it was a very cool to hear stories of people from Canada, the UK, Morrocans and Americans who came over to Japan, mainly as English teachers, but also in the technology industry. It was also interesting to hear from the Japanese themselves, where Shinichi worked at a robotics company after majoring in computer science in university.

The team (before)

The team (after winning 5 games woohooo)

Being the first time I had played volleyball in a long time, it was good to start the ball rolling again. They are going to have another match in 2 weeks and I can’t wait to play again! It is indeed a very good idea to organise such events to get an international community together and just releasing some steam. Yarrrrr. Watch out for the next blog post, gonna write more about Japanese aesthetics and some useful Japanese grammar.

Backlog: Using たら (if), expressing obligation and its opposite | Japanese culture class (物の哀れ、侘び寂び、雅び)

 

 

Nagoya Day 19: Creator’s Market

I promised a post on the Creator’s Market and here it is.

The Creator’s Market is an exhibition and a marketplace for a variety of exquisite craftsmanship and artworks. By variety I really mean it. 700 stalls featuring a range of works from woodwork to porcelain to paper crafts to beautiful gradient hues of printed t-shirts to a samurai . I stayed there from 3pm to 6pm and I just got through one exhibition hall of 400 stalls.

I am a stationery addict, and I’ve done pretty well to get through 3 weeks without spending much on stationery, but this is where the aesthetics of Japanese craftsmanship was too much for me.

First, the place. The market was held at Port Messe Nagoya Exhbition Hall at Kinjo Futo station. As the name suggests, it is held by the port, 6 stations south of Nagoya. To enter, you gotta pay 900円 if you’re an adult, and 600円 if you are a student. Tons of Japanese people crowd the place. On the other day I went to the racetrack for the flea market, I saw plenty of foreigners, but here, I seemed to be one of the few. People pretty much only spoke Japanese, and it felt like a unique experience.

Port Messe Nagoya Exhibition Hall

As I entered, the exhibition hall was huge. Tall towering ceilings, and rows after rows of stalls lined up, vendors hawking their goods, but in a rather more silent way. A polite bow, ”いらっしゃいませ”, and an eager expression. Their goods do the talking, not them.

The Exhibition Hall, brimming with people and stalls.

The craftwork is absolutely breathtaking. Creative pieces such as this owner’s stunned me. The textured pieces of paper were put together to create a variety of objects, such as a castle, birds hung from a pole and a church.

Paper Crafts by this maestro. How do they look so pretty? The owner seems flattered to have her photo taken hehe

Ink drawings such as this one, shows how much effort was being put in.

Intricate Ink Drawings

Look at this person seriously working at his craft. He doesn’t even flinch when people stop and walk by

The best thing is that art was done not to be sold, but instead, to be admired.

Dragon pieced together by a lady who just hides inside, watching people’s looks of awe and shock. What an artist.

Artists at work, I especially love the one with the animals on the car.

There are also places for children to play around with wooden toys that the craftmen made. The look of wonder on the children is really heartening as they examine the work from all sides.

（あそびひろば）

Then this. Powder art, made into sculptures. I was left jaw-dropped at the detail.

Powder Art

On top of this, beautiful leather craft. Crafters were making it at a table beside, and to give them some respect, I decided not to take a photo of them. But one take-away: Craftmanship requires a slightly sombre mood, a willingness to bite the dust, and slowly get your craft perfect. They were unflinchingly focused, completely absorbed. Their eyes don’t wander, their posture consistent – These people are really good at what they do, and I need to adopt that persistently.

Beautiful and elegant, slightly roughened too.

The last thing I’ll feature is an origami shop, run by this girl that looks like a university student, but I didn’t ask further. Usually, I walk by origami and wonder about buying them, but this was just crazy. The designs were so appealing, the slightly toned down colours very easy on the eyes.

Origami glory

Tidbit: If you wanna entice people to buy your stuff, why not let them try it? This store owner put up a sign inviting me to make an origami crane, and I did it. I saw the paper as so beautiful that I bought a few, and made these the moment I got back to dorm.

I love the designs so much!

There you have it. An incredible experience at the creator’s market. More photos right below.

 

 

 

 

Nagoya Day 18: Japanese Aesthetics (Part 1)

I went to the ‘Creator’s Market’ today, and it was so awesome that I should leave it for another post. On my way there, I had lots of time on the train, so I took the time to do my readings for next week. It was a good idea because the readings were spot on regarding Japanese aesthetics.

“幽玄 (Yūgen), or ‘suggestion’ can be apprehended by the mind, but it cannot be expressed in words. Its quality may be suggested by the sight of a thin cloud veiling the moon or by autumn mist swathing the scarlet leaves on a mountain-side. If one is asked where in these sights lies the yūgen, one cannot say.”

At the heart of Japanese aesthetics are 4 qualities: suggestion (as mentioned above), irregularity, simplicity and perishability. I’ll mention just one, because it is important. Watch out for my future posts where I’ll elaborate a little on each quality of Japanese aesthetics, maybe linking it to my ikebana class.

On ‘suggestion’:

Here’s a poem that elucidates this,

By Fujiwara no Kintō:
Dimly, dimly
The day breaks at Akashi Bay;
And in the morning mist
My heart follows a vanishing ship
As it goes behind an island.

ほのぼのと
あかしのうらの
あさぎりに
しまがくれゆく
ふねをしぞおもう

The ambiguity here is exploited to suggest an atmosphere and an emotional state that isn’t stated. One wonders what it is, but is left to multiple interpretations to imagine of. You don’t quite know why the poet’s heart went behind the island, nor what it really means, but that is the beauty. If the poem was too complete, there’s nothing more to work with.

Here’s another poem to illustrate it, by 松尾場所 (Matsuo Bashō)

On the withered bough
A crow has alighted:
Nightfall in autumn.

枯れ枝に
からすのとまりけり
秋の暮れ

In Japanese, you don’t know whether the crow (からす) is a plural or singular noun, neither do you know whether it is “nightfall in autumn” or “the nightfall of autumn”, so that gives plenty of interpretations. To quote directly from the article:

“If we were to insist on determining which meaning the poet intended, the answer might as well be that both the nightfall or a particular autumn and the end of the autumnal season were intended. If Bashō’s phrase were interpreted as meaning nightfall, regardless of whether it were early or late in autumn, it might suggest that the crow was alighting on a withered branch in a tree otherwise filled with bright leaves, producing a disharmonious impression. If the scene intended had been an unspecified time of day towards the end of autumn, it might mean that the crow was alighting in the full glare of noon, an unequally inappropriate possibility.”

Such ambiguity gives people much more room to contemplate and truly appreciate the amount of work done by the author to create a situation that is full of richness. This wasn’t an ambiguity randomly chosen. The use of words were carefully chosen to create a consistent setting.

A last word on the topic of “suggestion”: Are we to look at cherry blossoms only in full bloom, the moon only when it is cloudless? To long for the moon while looking on the rain, to lower the blinds and be unaware of the passing of spring – these are even more deeply moving. Branches about to blossom or gardens strewn with faded flowers are worthier of our admiration.      – Kenkō