The exhibition continues, with many friends and customers, old and new, sparing the time to visit me here and enjoy the new works. Alas and alack, I find myself bereft of the appropriate software to download any photos. On top of that, most of the best work is walking out the door before I can photograph it anyway!
So, without visuals, I will try to paint you a picture.
The morning light filters softly through the paper shoji screens, and I wake to an unfamiliar ceiling. It is covered with a layer of fine bamboo, darkened by charcoal fumes, completely unlike the ceiling of my bedroom at home (undressed cedar with a screw missing). I turn my leaden head to take in the rest of my surroundings, a tea room, a shelf of my tea bowls, tea caddies, water vessels and vases. A sign above me says in Japanese characters "帰庵”, Ki An, a tea room to come home to. I realize suddenly where I am, just feet away from the busiest street in Tokyo, 150 km from home, from Mika and the children, but safe at another sort of home. For nine days every year, for the last sixteen years, this has been my home.
No comments:
Post a Comment