The Zen of lotus leaves: graceful, reaching, curling, budding, nurturing, blossoming, caressing, open and welcoming, hiding, labyrinthine, blanketing. Sprawling Ueno Park erupts in an explosion of pastel pink during sakura season, the iconic cherry trees in bloom. People gather in small groups on blue tarps to picnic and photograph. Soon after, a shower of pinkContinue reading “Lotus of Ueno Park, Tokyo”
Tag Archives: Japan
Armchair Historians podcast: Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami
I had the pleasure recently of being interviewed on Armchair Historians podcast about my personal account of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Although I wasn’t in one of the disastrously affected areas, I was living twenty-five minutes west of Tokyo at the time and it literally shook my world and impacted the lives ofContinue reading “Armchair Historians podcast: Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami”
A Japanese treasure
I first become interested in Japan in my college days, when, along with a generation of hippie potters, I was inspired by the works of Shoji Hamada. Declared a Living National Treasure, Hamada and his twentieth-century contemporaries created functional stoneware vessels. Sturdier-looking than decorative ceramics, in simple but graceful shapes, but with a strength andContinue reading “A Japanese treasure”
Fate or coincidence
A visitor to the Georgetown Heritage Center, the old restored schoolhouse that hosts our Plein Air art show (A labor of love), told me a story about visiting a schoolhouse museum in Victoria, British Columbia. (I won’t repeat the story here; it’s his story.) He mentioned the Empress Hotel, which reminded me of my ownContinue reading “Fate or coincidence”
Ruth Rosenfeld 