Session 3 - June 30

[Morgan Pitelka]

Katharine, I gave a lecture at the opening of that exhibit! ANd I also have an essay in the catalog, which is unfortunately hard to find, so I'll attach it. Here's the reference:

Morgan Pitelka, “Warriors, Tea, and Art in Premodern Japan.” Samurai: Beyond the Sword. Ed. Birgitta Augustin. Detroit Institute of Arts, 2014. 

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[Katharine Davis]

What a small world! (Although, really, considering your background it's not at all surprising to know you were invited to lecture at the opening!) Thank you for sharing the essay! I'll have to look around and see if I can find my program, etc. from the exhibit. (I'm a terrible pack-rat so there's a good chance it's around here somewhere!)

[Deirdre Harris]

Hello Dr. Pitelka, I wanted to thank you for sharing the essay you wrote for the exhibit in Detroit with the beautiful photographs of the ceramics, incense burners and more.  What a small-world story.  I know that during our discussion,  you had asked about how many of us had tried Matcha Ceremonial green tea, and I immediately ordered the "Ujido, the path of zen", small bag, (only about $20), and tried it at home.  It was delicious, and very special, after all we have learned and shared together.  Thank you for the essay, and the new favorite drink.  Here is the website, if anyone wants to order some of it's offerings:   

Ceremonial Blend Matcha

[Deirdre Harris]

Dear Katherine,

Thank you so much for sharing this link to the short film clip about the Japanese warrior who repaired all of the broken umbrellas after the rainstorm.  It was delightful.  I am sure this would be a fun film, that could easily be shared with any age, to show the devotion that people had for sacred objects.  It was fun, and I found myself chanting to myself "atcha gotcha" for the rest of the afternoon.  Thanks again.  

[Deirdre Harris]

Hi Thomas, Great idea to do an object biography as a student activity!  There were so many aspects of his difficult life that kids today could connect to, that first I think making a personal connection with this real-life character would be a starting point.  Then choosing an object that he might have had in his collection, (by doing research) and then sharing this out with the class, each student could tell about a different object in his vast collection.  

I also like your idea of having students write an autobiography of themselves in a similar way.  I think bringing nature and the high value Japan culturally places on nature, and spiritual connections could also be part of their activities.  Showing the short animated film 99 could also be a way to bring in this idea of a spiritual connection that all Japanese culture seem to have for their beautiful country.  I wish our country held nature in a higher esteem than it seems to now.  

[Deirdre Harris]

Hi David,  Your post resonated with me also when thinking about how important the "combination" of the objects and rutuals in Japan's culture was and is so important to learn (and teach students) about.  When I think about the things we've learned about like you mentioned from swords, (and the ritual in the process of it's making), to the Samurai Warrior relationships, the friendship protocols, and the objects they gave one another to the tea ceremony that we learned about.  I'm feeling like I could approach teaching my students from so many different ways.  For example, I may have them choose an object from Japanese culture that they are interested in, then research it, and write about it's importance in the culture, when it was used, and it's purpose in the culture, and any ritual ceremony involved.  You could also approach it in a more linear way, historically, and learn all things about a certain time period, sort of the way we did it with this class and Professor Dube's previous Asian Studies classes.  From there, we could then compare and look at other countries and find examples like David also mentions with others, and finally can they find anything similar to this in their own lives.  I can see some magnificent ways to approach sharing this wonderful information.  Thanks for some great ideas.

[Ying Yu]

The professor listed the Ancient, classical, mediavel, early modern and modern peroids. The timeline is so useful for me to understand Japanese history. I will put it into my future lesson plan. The Japanese Armors are so cool. In my classroom, we can try to use hard paper to create some  for students to wear those Armors. Also, both dagger and sword represent the samurai spirit，which can be used to teach my students in the class to understand Japanese culture better.

[Ying Yu]

I was so fasinated by the tea ceremony in Japan. They appreciated the tea tools from China and respect tea culture from China and even develop them to their specific style. The tea house is so exquisite. Even the garden around the tea house, and the road toward tea house are so delicated. Those icons shows the philosophical life-style of Japanese people. I love Macha so much! I think it is a great invention from Japanese. I would like to learn the process of tea ceremony and show it to my students. 

[Ying Yu]

Hi Shuang, thanks for your recomendation! Cultural inheritance is so important for every country. I would like to use the Japanese tea ceremony as a hook to inspire my students to think more about how to protect culture.

[Ying Yu]

Samurai and Sword are pretty cool icons for my students to learn Japanes culture. Thanks for your recommendation! I think guide my students to tour in Japanese musem is a very good idea for them to learn. I would also introduce the Samurai spirit to my students.

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