Review: Making Tea, Making Japan: Cultural Nationalism
Practiceby Kristin Surak (Stanford CA, Stanford University Press, 2013)
What’s all this fuss about Japanese tea anyway?” begins a quiz
I give to students after I do a demonstration in conjunction with their
Japanese culture curriculum. I usually don’t don kimono, not only because there’s
not lots of prep time, but also because it sends a different message than what
I hope they will experience.
Why are we studying the culture of other people? I my youth
it was because it was out of my regular “ordinary” experience; it seemed exotic
and either made my own daily existence look better or different. Since
beginning my study of chanoyu in 1985, and being one of only a few Occidental
people who has stuck it out, I can now say that it is within my regular “ordinary”
experience.
My friends seem to think that I’ve turned Japanese, but that
is categorically impossible as Kristin Surak’s new book that explores how
chanoyu has molded and been molded by the core essence of Japanese-ness:
The tea practice – the preparation procedures and modes
interaction at lessons –
began to mold my foreign body into forms regarded as distinctively Japanese.
began to mold my foreign body into forms regarded as distinctively Japanese.
Turning Japanese? I Hardly Think そ
As a left-handed, cross-country skiing Jewish feminist, such
a transformation is not likely, but something has happened and for some reason
it has made its impact.
Perhaps the best test has been during numerous subsequent
visits to Japan. When I mention upon first encounter with a Japanese native
that I have been studying chanoyu since that time with a distinguished tea
master, people stop what they are doing, inhale slightly through the teeth and
a type of relief mixed with fear comes over the person with whom I am
conversing: Relief that I may understand them at their core. Fear that I may
ask them a questions or, perhaps worse, that I may invite them to participate
in a tea gathering, an activity about which they in fact never cared too much
for or about which they may know very little.
When I would be invited to join other tea folks to
do a demonstration at the annual Japan Expo in Los Angeles, I am usually stopped
during my break time walking around to see the other exhibitions /
demonstrations by an arguably Japanese (language accent) ...
"You wear kimono yourself?"
To which I usually replied, pulling the neckline out a bit
in the front and peering down into the chasm of my décolletage that has been
stuffed into the coquettishly kokeshi tubular form, much like those devices
that produce perfectly round hard boiled eggs that are then sliced and served
in airplane salads ...
"I'm the only one in there."
Of course, this questions is literally a translation from
Japanese into English, as "mono" means "thing/object" and
"ki" refers to the verb "to wear", so a kimono is a thing
to wear, but it has tremendous cultural implications.
A sister tea practitioner social anthropologist Kristin
Surak has written an important and essential book that will help the curious
place the impact of chanoyu where it belongs in Japan, smack dab in the middle
of the culture. While the finger that points to the moon is “only” the finger,
tea is absolutely tea and the ritual is reasonably identified as and of Japan
(even though it is also of China and Korea). Like a horse with a wandering soul,
it takes a strong trainer to keep it on course. This has been the work of many
aficionados for more than 450 years.
Likewise, there is a Zen Buddhist parable that states the
taste of Tea and Zen are one ... or maybe it's One. There are many tea
practitioners who can't possibly practice the forms without kimono. The garb
does support the torso while sitting seiza, and the temae gestures do
specifically accommodate and even enable the long sleeves -- doing double duty
as pockets -- to be seen as a type of prop. The folds become essential
"pockets" for various cloths and papers used by both host and guest.
Coquettish Kokeshi
Some might call me an "Orientalist"
to the extent that I still find many aspects of Asian cultures, especially
Japanese, very attractive. As I have some
beautiful kimono to okeiko and tea events, even kotohjime at the JACCC, but as I've aged my body type just is not made for this cut of
cloth. I stick to haori for formal Western wear and samue for informal gatherings where I wish to show cultural symbiosis.
When I began practicing chanoyu, I had lost quite a bit of
weight and, for my first public demonstration, several of the Japanese ladies
who were helping me dress, were muttering about how many towels it was going to
take to fill up waistline. From them on I learned how to dress myself so I
could avoid that stuffy feeling. Anything to avoid The Vapors!
As my body filled itself out naturally over time, I know now why the obijime is worn low on the obi if one is of middle age and older. While it may be a sign that one is young and available for marriage if it sits mid-way, the lower position is more likely practical to hold fast to the extra material when more of the long sash is need to circumnavigate the midriff, leaving much less "extra" flap to tuck upward behind the "pillow".
And there is the matter of the various useful, however
unglamorous strings that I have inherited from various kind women who took
pity on my not having an appropriate kimono trousseau, including koshihimo, strings, usually pink
or white but mine is light blue and purple wave pattern, are a formal
description of these unsung heroes. I can also measure my girth and have had to
resort to pretty serious knots.
There is nothing useful to be said about zori, except that
if there are puddles, get high ones, but otherwise one really doesn't need them
most of the time for tea ceremony events in a home. I usually wear men's
varieties to accommodate the essential tabi, or use Birkenstock sandals so I
can drive my car.
12/11/18 Post Script:
I am reminded of a situation where I was asked if I could help dress in kimono a younger Japanese woman, one of the participants in a new year's tea event held at a large western-style hotel in Los Angeles. I responded with a yes and was told to find her in an anteroom where other women were getting into their kimono. She showed me her official kimono suitcase, with various ties and sections, each for a unique tie or scarf, tabi or board and the major section that held a beautiful perfectly folded silk kimono and obi. She was quite beautiful, slender and ready for instructions. I excused myself and ran back to the mizuya to find my colleague who had sent me on this mission. "I can help her dress, but I cannot make her look Japanese. Only like an American in a kimono." I suggested that I help out in the kitchen cleaning tea bowls and that someone else should help her!
12/11/18 Post Script:
I am reminded of a situation where I was asked if I could help dress in kimono a younger Japanese woman, one of the participants in a new year's tea event held at a large western-style hotel in Los Angeles. I responded with a yes and was told to find her in an anteroom where other women were getting into their kimono. She showed me her official kimono suitcase, with various ties and sections, each for a unique tie or scarf, tabi or board and the major section that held a beautiful perfectly folded silk kimono and obi. She was quite beautiful, slender and ready for instructions. I excused myself and ran back to the mizuya to find my colleague who had sent me on this mission. "I can help her dress, but I cannot make her look Japanese. Only like an American in a kimono." I suggested that I help out in the kitchen cleaning tea bowls and that someone else should help her!
