The Museum of Asian Arts in Nice is organizing a week of solidarity with Japan.
This week dedicated to Japanese art will be an opportunity for the public to participate in numerous workshops, demonstrations, and ceremonies for free while also offering support to the victims of the tsunami.
*Sunday, June 12: 10:30 AM, 2 PM, 4 PM*
The kumiko, incense rituals, will be performed by Master Souhitsu Issiken Hachiya, the current heir of the Shino school, who has come especially from Japan. Kôdô, the “way” of incense, is the Japanese art of appreciating fragrances. During a ceremony, participants play at “listening” to the scents exhaled by aromatic woods, burned according to codified rules established towards the end of the 14th century. The ceremony takes place in a room where people gather to form a square.
The incense master, the komoto, fills a cup called the kiki-gouro with rice ash. A bamboo ember is then burned separately and placed inside the ashes.
After traditional patterns have been drawn on the ashes and a small piece of mica has been placed in the center, a piece of aromatic wood, the size of a rice grain, is deposited to allow fragrances to be released without combustion. The cup then passes from hand to hand for the “listening” and returns to the komoto, who in the meantime has prepared two other scents, the game being to distinguish the two identical odors from the intruder.
*Monday, June 13, starting at 2:30 PM.*
The Japanese troupe Sakurama Kai Nô will conduct a Nô theater workshop.
Nô theater is a highly stylized theatrical art, sung and danced, often performed with masks (there are up to 138 different masks). The ancient and prestigious Sakurama family has distinguished itself since the Sengoku and Edo eras in the practice of the Art of Nô Theater. “Ujin,” the star of this performance, is the 21st descendant of his line. He is renowned for his classical and traditional style inherited from the performing arts dating back to the time when this theater troupe was in the service of the Hosokawa Family, whose Daimyo (feudal lord) was a great lover of culture and favored excellence in it. This lineage endeavored to establish frequent contacts with foreign cultures, and a Japanese mission contributed to influencing certain forms of European theater.
Access to the activities is entirely free.
However, the Association of Japanese Nationals from Nice Côte d’Azur (ARJNCA) will be selling t-shirts (€15) and also collecting donations for the benefit of the victims in Japan.
All funds raised will be donated to the Japanese Red Cross.
