I learned a new word : すごい (sugoi)… and, wow, I was surprised to learn the meaning!
This morning started special… EGG had planned a half day tour for me… had, because it went some kind of different…
Yesterday Yoshi had already said within their organization they were quite curious about that “Belgian girl” who wanted to learn more about sumi-e… What should they think about her? How exciting… would their knowledge of English be good enough to help me? Stressy!
Back to today: I met Junko Asagi who’d been so nice to ask het next door neighbour – a sumi-e sensei – to give me a workshop. But when we met at the station it became clear pretty quickly that I wouldn’t be back early! In the mean time her other neighbour had heard of the visit and she would appreciate me to visit her house too. In the occasion of girls festival she had decorated her house with Hina dolls and would love to show that to me.
But first we visited Ms Ito, who had been transforming her whole house into a sumi-e gallery for the event! Impressive what this lady has been painting… starting with beautiful classical pieces, over ponds with waterlilies that remind one of Monet’s in Paris on to sunflowers linke Van Gogh’s but this time as large as the walls…
She wanted to see what I’d painted too and saw a whole other style. We admired each other’s work and thanks to our interpreter (Ms Asagi) we were able to talk about our passion… while having a delightful cup of matcha tea with Japanese cookies.
And then the study guides opened… a whole library of examples… I was asked to choose an example and try that… I choose poppies. I had never tried these and on top of that they accorded nicely with what EGG promotes: spreading peace over the world… After two attempts I already got positive remarks from the other side of the table and got the suggestion to try another one. In the mean time the ladies started rubbing some different kinds of inks for me so I could test those too. Then Ms Ito disappeared, I should try another kind of paper. Wow, this is great! And on this went for the rest of the morning, fantastic!
But then, amazement! I asked if Ms Ito would like to paint some examples for me … She hadn’t made any artwork of herself anymore since her husband got ill, and that was 10 years ago…
It was lunchtime, time to head for the other neighbour and her Hina-dolls. I had already seen some Hina dolls the last days. Mostly in pairs of two in the windows of houses where there are girls. These dolls are put there because, according to the tradition, they would bring good fortune and marriage to the daughters. But watch out! As from Girls Day (3rd March) they need to be stowed away as soon as possible, otherwise they bring bad luck!
So yes, I had been expecting to see 2 dolls when the doors to the living room opened… and there they were… on a 7 stories high display… a whole Hina universe… with in a corner of the room another set of 2 that had been carefully crafted by the lady of the houwe herself! Stunning!
Even the neighbours are blown away… usually they never enter each other’s house…
We have lunch together. We enjoy soba, delicious pastries and cakes with fresh fruit. Then we head back to Ms Ito’s for a second session, the Hina-neighbour would like to see my work too… “Sugoi”. Then, all of a sudden Ms Ito takes a brush to teach me something…
The neighbours search for another exmample in the library and ask me to try this… “sugoi, sugoi” and another one “sugoi” “sugooi, sugoi!”
When leaving I receive some presents with the request to do my best to use them well… That’s a promise! I secretly hope my visit has brought Ms Ito back the energy to paint again…
In the end I only got back to Nara at 5 pm. Too late again for the teaceremony at Isuien that Yoshi recommended… Maybe another time.
Sugoi! It sounded wonderful, but tonight I looked it up in Google translate: “Amazing”
That’s the only correct word to describe today! Who could ever have thought that I would walk from one house to another in Japan and what I would get to see and experience there?
