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23 July 2019

SOUVENIR ISSUE

22 July 1969 The Sun

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21 July 2019

Otagaki Rengetsu (Lotus Moon) and the enlightenment project : from mud to the moon

"We choose to go to the moon..."
- President Kennedy, 12 September 1962

Today is the 50th anniversary of the 21 July 1969 moon landing. From the FIAPCE Earth Archive, some front pages of The Sun, Melbourne :

17 July 1969 The Sun

18 July 1969 The Sun

19 July 1969 The Sun

21 July 1969 The Sun

22 July 1969 The Sun

collection FIAPCE

Otagaki Rengetsu (Lotus Moon)
enlightenment project : from mud to the moon

The following text is from the website of the
Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens.

Otagaki Rengetsu (1791-1875) was born in the spring of 1791, and was like the secret daughter of a geisha and Todou Yoshikiyo, chief retainer of the Iga-Ueno fief. She was soon adopted into the samurai-class family of Otagaki Tsune’emon and his wife Nawa, and was given the name Nobu. She spent her early childhood on the grounds of Chion-in, head temple of the Jodo sect of Buddhism, where she began training in literature, poetry and martial arts. At age eight, she was sent to serve as a lady-in-waiting at Kameoka castle outside of Kyoto. There she spent nearly a decade studying calligraphy, dancing, flower arranging and tea ceremony – all the appropriate cultural adornments of the refined, yet narrow, world of the upper class elite.

Around the age of 33, heartbroken and in a seemingly endless cycle of personal tragedy and changing fortunes (as a result of the loss of her step-parents, two husbands and the death of all five of her children) Nobu renounced her worldly existence and took formal vows to become a Buddhist nun at Chion-in temple. Symbolizing her transition and devotion to the path of the Buddha, she took the name Rengetsu, or Lotus Moon.

At the age of 42, alone and without resources, Rengetsu moved to the Okazaki district of Kyoto and took up pottery making to support herself. Appreciation for her work grew, despite the fact that she was self-taught, because of her insightful, often witty, poetry that she inscribed on her pieces. Rengetsu’s distinctive, rough-surfaced, lop-sided, hand-molded vases, tea bowls, and sake bottles, incised with her spare verse in exquisite kana script, imbued each piece with a truly unique spirit. In fact, Rengetsu’s work became so popular that many imitated, and even copied, her work leading to the rise of Rengetsu-yaki, or Rengetsu-ware, that continued to be produced even years after her death. Her rich artistic legacy emerges not only from her eclectic and prolific body of work, but also from a life spent in deep meditation on the illusory nature of existence.

Rengetsu’s artistic productivity reached its peak when she was in her late 70s, after which she became increasingly fragile battling several illnesses. She spent her last days meditating, chanting and reciting mantras, and refused any medications. She died in seclusion on December 10, 1875. Upon her request, Rengetsu’s friend and long-time collaborator, Tomioka Tessai, had prepared her funeral shroud by painting an image of a lotus and the moon on it. In the last years of her life, Rengetsu composed a beautiful and haunting farewell poem, or jisei, the final version of which was buried with her :

Negawaku ha
Nochi no hachisu no
Hana o ue ni
Kumoranu tsuki o
Miru yoshi mo kana

How I hope to pass away
While sitting on
The lotus flower
Gazing up at the moon
In a cloudless sky

sake cup by Rengetsu collection FIAPCE

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19 July 2019

#SixYearsTooLong

It is six years since Kevin Rudd toughened the then government’s stance against people coming to Australia seeking asylum : OFF SHORE DETENTION … automatic, arbitrary, compulsory and indefinite.
Australia wide rallies today 19th July will mark this shameful anniversary.

click image above to find an event near you

16 July 2019

Label Drummers

click image to enlarge

Above, a lone Label Drummer, early 20th century,
and below, 21st century Label Drummers of TAR.

Theatre of the Actors of Regard

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15 July 2019

Der Blaue Regard

Theatre of the Actors of Regard

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10 July 2019

Title Dance|r : Struttin' With Some TARbq

Struttin' With Some Barbeque (Lil Hardin)

Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five (Lil Hardin, piano)

Lillian "Lil" Hardin Armstrong (née Hardin; February 3, 1898 – August 27, 1971) was a jazz pianist, composer, arranger, singer, and bandleader. She was the second wife of Louis Armstrong, with whom she collaborated on many recordings in the 1920s. Her compositions include Struttin' with Some Barbecue. - Wikipedia

Raku Ryonyu (1756-1834) Scrollin'...

Raku Ryonyu (1756-1834) Stampin'...

Raku Ryonyu (1756-1834) plate with matrix ideogram

Finally, some speculative etymology. I think with affection of the Czech novelist Josef Skvorecky, who wrote in his novel THE COWARDS (or his novella THE BASS SAXOPHONE) of his difficulties with jazz-related English (he was a youthful amateur tenor player during the Second World War): encountering “Struttin’ With Some Barbecue” for the first time, he was puzzled by the word-by-word translation: could it really mean “Walking pompously with an animal carcass roasted whole”?

I have the same feelings about “Drop that sack!” Is it really an old-time racially-based joke about chicken-stealing, or did it mean, “Let’s get out of here” or “Get rid of that unattractive person”?

It adds something to the resonance of the words that DROP THAT SACK was one of the two titles that Louis recorded “anonymously” with Lil’s Hot Shots for a competing label while he was under contract to OKeh — trying to hide Louis’s conception and sound would be like pretending the great Chicago Fire wasn’t burning . . . . but I wonder if there are hidden meanings to the expression, just as we later learned that “Struttin’ with some barbecue” was a pre-PC way of saying, “Walking proudly with my beautiful girlfriend.”

- from JAZZ LIVES