The Buddha Don't Need No Quizzes

     Today I took a slide quiz + fill in the blanks + sequential ordering on the first gallery of San Francisco's Asian Art Museum.  We had to sit two chairs apart. I think I passed; it was a pass-fail situation.

     As a reward I get to hear Ravi Shankar, my first time live, probably his last at the SF Jazz.

     All-on-all a great day: a lecture by the pre-eminent scholar Dr. Dehejia on the Sacred and Sensuous in Indian art.  An eye-opener for judeo-christian-protestant-puritan types like self.  The divine can be and was imagined as utterly human, and religious ectasy close to sexual ecstasy in its appreciation of human beauty.  And this means the body adorned and decorated, which can be seen in the India of today.

    If this existed amongst the Greeks and Romans, it surely was buried by the time I came round.

Photograph 2008, Lucey Bowen

   

My Asian Cocktail: Art, Culture, People

Ganesha

     Ganesha is the remover of obstacles.  It's wise to check in with him when beginning new enterprises.  Like making the six year commitment to becoming a docent at San Francisco's Asian Art Museum as I have done.
     Total immersion in 5000 years of Asia. from Pakistan to Japan!  One day a week of classes for three years.  Slide quizzes, tests, papers.  Ganesha, I do need your assistance.
     Fortunately, I'm surrounded by terrific people. In addition to the museum staff, veteran docents are always on call.  We work in five small groups of dozen aspirants.  We work up study guides, notecards and skills long forgotten.  We are a delicious cocktail of ethnicities and interests.
     And what have I learned in a month?  I've been reminded that art is always about looking, seeing and being a little seduced by what you see.  
     Amazing scholars from both the museum and elsewhere speak to us about their thinking.  Some of my mis-educated ideas have been corrected. I always thought Hinduism preceded Buddhism, and it did, but Buddhism produced architecture and sculpture earlier than Hinduism.  Here's a fine paradox:  the scenes portrayed in sculpture at Buddhist temples are stories of the Buddhas life, and his past life, but they may not have been there to instruct, rather to sanctify.  I should explain that we begin in the Indian subcontinent  and follow the spread of Hinduism, Buddhism and/or Islam through South East Asia, China, Korea and Japan.
     All great information, and there will be tests, but I will need the most help in learning how to present the collection to visitors so that they want to come back again and again.

Inlaid Design from Taj Mahal

     Speaking of visiting the Asian Art Museum, we had a preview of the next exhibition, Maharaja, which comes to San Francisco from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.  It will be worthy of a great king.  Can you imagine fine glass embellished with precious stone, much like what I saw at the Taj Mahal?  The exhibit will visually explain the qualities required of these kings, and their history, from the Delhi Sultanate to British Raj.  It opens in late October, and is not to be missed.
     Don't laugh, there is  a connection between my recent trip to Ireland and Asia.  It was Lord Gough, an Anglo-Irishman and a Garryowen man (Limerick born) who fought the Sikhs in India and led the British forces in the first Opium War in China.  And I've even found a serious scholarly tome called Irish Orientalism. And consider that the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin is a treasure trove of Asian art, and will, when I next visit, feature an astonishing collection of photographs of China, taken from 1868 to 1872.
   

Rehearsing Bon with Sessue Hayakawa

“Namu Amida Butsu.  Namu Amida Butsu. Namu Amida Butsu.  Have Fun!” 

With this prayer begins the Bon Odori rehearsal.

The teacher and her apprentices bow and step up on the raised platform, or yagura, in the center of the San Jose Buddhist Temple Betsuin’s gym.  Their faces are relaxed.  The youngest children encircle the platform, and concentric rings of dancers wait expectantly, men and women, teenagers and retirees.

My yukata, towel, fan, clappers, and obi await evenings of July 9 and 10.

“We’ll begin with Shinshu Ondo.”  The taped music starts up.  Shaking wooden clappers in rhythm, we move counterclockwise around the platform, watching and imitating the expressive hand gestures of the dancers on the platform or the experienced one ahead of us.  For one and a quarter hours we practice a total of fifteen different dances.  We repeat ones that are new or complicated. Some dances require a fan, others the clappers or a towel, and we take a break to retrieve the correct item.   After the first hour, I’m tired and sweaty and step outside with a cold drink and a cookie from the table in the lobby.

The practice session closes with the prayer, “Namu Amida Butsu.  Namu Amida Butsu. Namu Amida Butsu." The priest observes "The group is improving. Remember, if you don’t worry about your performance, the group will do well.”   He elaborates, “…it is not intended to be a show, but something to be done. There can be joy in watching, but that same joy does not exist in the act of being watched. Being watched is the ego at work and the antithesis of sharing the joy and doing it together.”  I have so much to learn.

Bon Odori began in 8th Century Japan with Odori Nembutsu, Buddhist chants and dances celebrating the joy of living and honoring departed loved ones at mid-summer. A thousand years later, the newly restored Meiji Emperor banned bon dancing. It was thought to encourage immoral behavior among youth.  Bon Odori resumed in the Taisho era before World War I.  Buddhist ministers brought it to Hawaii in 1905, and to Buddhist temples in California, Washington and Canada in the 1930s. In the internment camps of World War II, Japanese Americans celebrated Obon.  After the war, in 1947, a Buddhist minister and his wife revived the festival dances in Watsonville, south of San Jose.

So that is why the Japanese American community is here. Why am I? 

I’ve wanted to dance bon odori since watching a Japanese television series Kinpachi Sensei, about a high school teacher and his students. I was riveted by the students’ performing the fisherman’s dance,  Soran. I didn’t know that this was bon odori, but I wanted to do it.

I am dancing for my father.  I am celebrating something he taught me.   He couldn't accept and wasn't accepted by his own tribe, so he was curious about others. He didn’t always feel comfortable in his skin, and so he sometimes tried on other people’s.  He made it seem like high adventure.  

I follow his boundary breaking steps.  There is always so much more to learn.  My father taught me a little about Zen Buddhism when he edited the translation of Sessue Hayakawa's autobiography in 1960.  Only in the last decade have I learned of the numerous other forms of Buddhism.  I had no idea of Hayakawa's  success in Hollywood 1910-1930, or the California bred anti-Asian racism which limited it, or the equanimity with which he faced these reversals of fortune.

I find connections and follow them. Studying Japanese history at DeAnza, I read about the Ee Ja Nai Ka phenomena of 1867. Unrest among poor farmers took the form of dancing jubiliantly through the streets, shouting “Ee Ja Nai Ka!” or “What ever! ” after religious amulets had rained from the heavens.  I thought, ‘What a wonderful way to revolt! Dancing!”  (You can get some idea of it from a film version.)

At reheasal in the Betsuin gym, the list of dances we’re to learn hangs from the balcony. I see Ee Ja Nai Ka. This song could not have been brought to Hawaii or California by the Isei pioneers, because at the time of their emigraton, dancing had been outlawed.  Rather, the third generation Japanese-American activist, PJ Hirabiyashi, leader of San Jose Taiko, composed it. It’s become a staple of Obon festivals throughout the country.

Thank you, cher papa, I hope this dance is a good match to your rebellious spirit and Hayakawa's perserverence.

My 48 Hours in Japan without leaving the South Bay

Friday

4 PM

A Japanese Inn ?

Sheltered from busy El Camino Real by eight bosky acres of bamboo, pine, koi ponds,

lanterns and statuary,  Dinah’s Garden Hotel (4261 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA Tel .

650-493-4495) exudes the serenity and welcome of a Japanese ryokan of the ancient Hokkaido Road. This is no accident. Certain features of Japanese domestic architecture and building practices worked well in California’s climate and lifestyle, where indoor and outdoor spaces are blended.  Nisei architects and landscape designers, like Robert Murase and Kenji Imada, were part of the firms who developed the California Mid-Century Modern style you experience at Dinah's.

6 PM

Asian Fusion Confusion

Next to Dinah’s, looking like a Buddhist or Shinto Shrine, Trader Vic’s  (4269 El Canino Real, Palo Alto, CA. Tel. 650-849-9800)  serves the original Pan-Asian-Fusion cuisine that Oakland’s Victor Jules Bergeron dreamt up before World War II, along with the Mai Tai, the Pupu platter and the Tiki Bar.  About as American as Disney Land, it is an important stop, not only as a reminder of our fantasy filled imaginings of Far East, but because after a Mai Tai or two, returning to your room at Dinah’s will require no driving.

Saturday

9 am

An American Breakfast or a Japanese Pastries?

Dinah’s Poolside Grill serves the best breakfast on the Peninsula, next to the pool and surrounded by the gardens.  It’s very popular on weekends, so be up early.  You could wait until you arrive at Mitsuwa Market and stock up on bean pastries. Your call.

10 am

More than Postcard Shopping

Kinokinuya  (685 Saratoga Avenue, San Jose, CA. Tel. 408-252-1300) stocks Japanese language material in a multitude of media: magazines, books, CDs, as well as books in English about Japan, and Japanese authors in translation. There is abundance of “Hello Kitty” and other manifestations of Japanese pop culture, balanced by an artist’s stash of decorative and handmade paper, pens, notebooks, postcards,  even airmail envelopes.  You can even find postcards of famous Japanese scenes,  just in case.

11 am

To market, to market

Next door is  Mitsuwa Market.  (675 Saratoga Avenue, San Jose, CA. Tel. 408-255-6699) Almost a department store, where generations of Japanese Americans and recent immigrants shop for imported canned and dried food,  kitchen utensils, and beauty products, it also stocks fresh produce and fresh ingredients, like seafood and Wagyu beef, and pre-cooked food. Assemble a picnic lunch of sushi, your favorite beverages, rice cracker snacks and Poky, the chocolate covered biscuit sticks that come in many flavors. 

Noon

A walk in a garden and a picnic lunch

It’s not hard to see why a wealthy San Francisco family, the Stines, chose this location to build their fantasy of Japan, Hakone Estate and Gardens,  (21000 Big Basin Way, Saratoga, CA Tel. 408-741-4994) the first residential Japanese garden in the Western Hemisphere.  It’s perched on the sides of a steep pine covered canyon that could be mistaken for the interior of Japan. Mrs. Stine was inspired by the Japanese presence at San Francisco’s Panama Pacific Exposition of 1914 -1915, and had the resources to travel to Japan and bring the Emperor’s gardener from Kyoto to consult.

     Leave your lunch at the tables in the picnic area and walk up the paths to a half dozen spots meant for contemplating the valley below you, or the reflections in the pond.  Japanese gardens are written in that language of symbols that you begin to decipher.  Pine trees are long-lived and steadfast.  Bamboo grows quickly, and bends with the wind.  Cherry and plum bloom fleetingly.  Even the carp in the pond denote perserverence.

2 PM

The Gardener

Kenji Sakimoto was born in Alviso, now part of San Jose, in 1934. His Issei father was a farmer.  In 1941 the entire family was interned in Arkansas. Kenji became as student, then a teacher and recently retired from the award winning MountainView-Los Altos School District as its first Japanese American high school principal.  Sakamoto Plants (15567 Camino del Cerro, Los Gatos, CA Tel. 408-356-3864) is his retirement project. He can help you select a bonsai, and a chance to talk with him is speak with a piece of history.

4 pm

In Search of a Bath House

In Japan bathing is an important ritual, whether in natural or man made pools. Prior to World War II, a communal bathhouse was located on Jackson Street in Japantown. Further south, Gilroy Hot Springs was refurbished for the Japanese American community, and later offered as housing for displaced  families after WW II.  Both are gone now.  

            A drastic deviation from plan is required.  In spite of centuries of mutual mistrust, invasions and wars, much of Japanese culture, for example, religion and ceramics, can be traced to Korea.  So I send you to a Korean Spa, Lawrence Health Center,  (3545 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA Tel. 408- 243-1177) as a substitute which shares many of the rituals and their rewards. After a thorough self-scrub, plunge into warm, hot and icy pools and sit in dry or wet heat. Then present yourself to the attendant who will pound and scrub you into a state of blissful relaxation.

7 PM

The Tasting Menu of Samurai and their Tea Masters

Kaiseki is the original tasting menu developed 400 years ago for the powerful military rulers of Japan as part of the tea ceremony.  Kaygetsu, (325 Sharon Park Drive, Menlo Park, CA Tel. 650-234-1084) in Sharon Park Shopping Center, off Sand Hill Road, serves their versions of this exquisite, seasonal and pricey cuisine to venture capitalists and other modern daimyos, shoguns and emperors.  If this is too rich for your blood, other options on Menlo Park's Santa Cruz Avenue and El Camino Real include no less than five excellent sushi places, Yaninaki style BBQ at Juban, and family friendly Gombei and Tokyo Subway.

Sunday

Welcome to Worship

9 AM

Japanese and Japanese Americans have worshipped at Wesley United Methodist Church (566 North Fifth Street, San Jose, CA Tel. 408-295-0367) since 1895.  The building’s plane exterior and interior use of wood gives it an aesthetic of simplicity. The congregation sponsors the Aki Matsuri festival in the fall. At some services the church’s ukulele band performs, reflecting the ukulele’s Hawaiian origins, the Japanese presence in Hawaii before California,  and the popularity of this instrument in contemporary Japan. 

10:10 AM

In style, the San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin (640 North Fifth Street, San Jose, CA (Tel. 408-293-0433) is the only building in Japantown modeled directly on temple architecture in Japan, and was built in 1937 by craftsmen brought from Japan. The Issei had brought the True Essence of the Pure Land, a sect of Buddhism to California. The congregation is welcoming, multicultural and racially diverse.  If you can, participate in their Bon dance practices prior to the Obon Odori festival in early July.  (I'll be doing just that and reporting on my endeavor to overcome my musical and rhythmic challenges, culminating in performances July 9 and 10th)

11:30

Living History

The exterior of the Japanese American Museum,  (535 North Fifth Street, San Jose, CA Tel. 408-294-3138) is modeled after rural Japanese farm house. Inside, volunteers guide you through the panorama of photographs and objects that document the establishment of the San Jose’s Japantown in 1890.  Note that from its earliest form, Japantown was built with the aim of blending in, acculturating, a process interrupted by World War II.  You will see stark photographs of internment camps, and a replica of the Tule Lake barrack room where an entire family lived. Your guide may be a veteran of internment, and most likely you’ll overhear other visitors recount their stories of life in Japantown and the internment camps.  The JAMsj can also arrange walking tours of Japantown.

1 PM

Lunch first, or shopping?

In its two block length Jackson Street features no less than eight restaurants: noodles, sushi, shabu shabu, teriyaki. Making tofu and traditional sweets in small batches, San Jose Tofu and Shuei-Do Manju Shop that draws successive generations of Japanese Americans. They sell out quickly on Sunday mornings when the Farmer’s Market is in session just down the street. You will remember the deep Japanese-Hawaiian connection at Hukilau restaurant and at Na Wa’I Ola Halau, at 565 North Fifth Street where ukele and hula instruction are on offer.  Nichi Bei Bussan harks back to an older Japantown, offering everything that belongs in a dry-goods store, including a mechanical cash register. Explore!

4 pm

Lost in Contemplation

End your sojourn by strolling the broad paths that circumnavigate the three ponds, streams and waterfalls set at varying levels in San Jose Japanese Friendship Garden's six acres.  (Kelley Park, 1490 Senter Street, San Jose) This space was modeled on San Jose sister city Okayama’s 300 year old Korakuen, originally built for a feudal lord, and considered to be one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan.  Sited next to San Jose’s open air history museum, this garden perhaps best symbolizes the long and continued ebb and flow of ideas, things and people across our shared Pacific pond. 

Japan-on-the-Peninsula, A Perspective

San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin, San Jose, 2011

I grew up near New York City, where transistor radios were about the only popular from Japan until the opening of Beni Hana Toyko in 1964.  Still, Japanese objects fascinated me:  the samurai sword my Uncle Bill brought back from Occupied Japan, the glass fishing floats described in that quintessential SoCal surfer romance, Gidget.  My father hosted a garden party for the actor-turned-Zen-priest, Sessue Hayakawa, whose auto-biography he'd edited.  I was awed by the tall, dignified actor and the villain Hayakawa played in Bridge of the River Kwai.  Later, studying sumi-e, Japanese brush painting, I learned that form could be created with measured strokes of black ink on white paper.

I'm not alone in my fascination with Japan's culture of symbols, where the visual and the gestural are a secret code with layers and layers of meaning.  100 years ago, exhibitions in Chicago, and later in Buffalo, San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego and Saint Louis, inspired American Japonisme:  the consumption of Japanese paintings, prints, ceramics, gardens and even buildings.  For my generation, it's called Cold War Orientalism.  As the hatreds of World War II diminished, Americans travelled across the Pacific, spreading tourist dollars and democratic ideals. GIs returning from Occupied Japan added to a renewed appreciation of culture.

If earlier generations of Americans absorbed the aesthetics of Japanese art, others were interested in Japanese labor.  Japanese farmers, able to coax crops from marginal land, and suffering from the economic instability of modernizing Japan, were recruited to labor in the sugar plantations of Hawaii.  Then these Issei, or first generation pioneers, came to the orchards and fields of the "Valley of Heart's Desire," now Silicon Valley.  In the fisheries on California's coast, on farms and in dozens of towns like Salinas and Monterrey, they recreated the culture and society of Meiji Restoration Japan. With their success came resentment and discrimination.  After Japan attacked Pearl Harbot, West Coast Issei and their families were interned in isolated camps, and most of Calfornia's Japantowns destroyed. After the war, American born, second generation Nisei, struggled to regain what their parents has achieved and been denied.

Today, three Japantowns remain in California. San Jose's is far less crowded with tourists, and less commercial than those in Los Angeles and San Francisco.  For many Japanese Americans dispersed through out Bay Area suburbs, it is the heart of the community.   In and around it you can find much which suggests the historical and continued presence of the Japanese in California.

Next: I'll offer a 48 hour itinerary to do just that.

By Way of an Introduction

Radishes, Japantown, San Jose Farmer's Market, 2011

I'm a curious Caucasian who chooses to depart from the familiar.  After ten years of study of things Asian and Asian-American, and journeys to Japan, Vietnam, China and India, I know enough to know I'll never know enough.  I don't mind being an outsider if I can see beauty as defined by other cultures and inhale the freshened sense of life that comes with encountering the new and different, especially if it's not a 14 hour plane flight away.  Follow me as I explore the culture and society of Asia and Asians in California, the Orient that is east of San Francisco.