University Festivals in Busan

Yesterday night Pukyong National university had its school festival and rock concert. Today in the evening the neighbouring university Kyungsung dae had its festival on the beach at Gwangan. I snapped this photo of the event and wrote this haiku commemorating the monent :                   Hazy sun / Geumyeonsan Gwangan / Kyungsung Dae rock concert.

Hazy sun

cool wind gasps out

dying breath of spring

Via facebook I've been getting news of the violent thunder storms in my hometown Thunder Bay. I was surprised to hear of the lightening strike that shattered the stonework on a tall building there.

I was reminded of the times I'd take tea during storms, enjoying the sound of the rainfall. Here are a few articles on it. Ironically it was the hydro building that was hit, destroying one of the terra cotta turrets on the top corner of the building.

CBC reports damage can be repaired and here's another showing the damage

Thunder Bay

whole sky rumbles

kettle matches then whistles

Gwangali Shijo and a Haiku.

A haiku I wrote during last years rainy season. Sadly no typhoons on our way lately. I find them so exciting.

Typhoon at sea
Night clouds drift sprinkle rain
On the writing table moon.
 MWT.
Here are two pictures of Gwangali Bridge otherwise now known as 'Diamond Bridge' with Gwangali beach infront. It is my favorite beach in Busan.









The hill on the right is Igidae Hill half way up on it is a small temple. Yiran and I have met the monk there several times Dae Bang is his name.
On the extreme right you can see the Samick Beach Apartments and a black speck that is a statue of a red flower pot. Every night over the last few weeks its been either rainy or foggy in Gwangan so I still don't have a picture of the flower pot lit up nor the lights from the temple on the hill. If you're ever there in Gwangali at night, do look out to Igidae hill for the temple lights. They're quite beautiful.

I thought it appropriate to write a shijo about our neighborhood beach Gwangali, instead of the Japanese form haiku. Here are two versions of it : (I wish shijo were eight lines instead of six)

Diamond bridge shines in blue,
coffee shops bars a bustle

Igidae hill dark pyramid, lone light of a temple there
across at Cafe Pascucci, I slowly write this shijo,

Monk, poet here are both
United Nations observers.

Heres another version, with a different first couplet. Geumyeonsan is the mountain that faces the sea and Igidae hill is on a peninsula that stretches out into the sea making the beach area a bit of a bay. I wish I could fit Igidae in to the shijo form along with Geumeyonsan but alas, both don't seem to fit into the frame.

Sunset, clouds crest Geumyeonsan
Red flowerpot lit to gold

Igidae hill dark pyramid, lone light of a temple there
across at Cafe Pascucci, I slowly write this shijo,

Monk, poet here are both
United Nations observers.

MWT.

Gisaeng/Kisaeng Poetry: The sijo/Shijo

I have recently noticed that my Gisaeng post is up over 1000 readers now! So it seems I shall research and post more in that area, greater serving my readers out there in cyberland.

It is important to note, in the comparison between Japanese and Korean culture that Japan had both Geisha and Courtesans. The Geisha most strictly were the artists and entertainers while there was another separate group of courtesans who entertained sexually. There were strict laws definine each groups work ensuring that the Geisha would not encroach upon the courtesans area of expertise. (For reference I refer to Liza Dalby's well researched and footnoted work Geisha.
However, in Korea Gisaeng were both courtesan and artistic entertainer. Their clientele were the upper class yangban; the educated elite.

Love Poems From Old Korea in sijo form purchased at Yong-gwan bookstore in Someyeon (Busan) has many sijo, some of them written by Gisaeng.

I will cut into halves the waist

of the long mid-winter night;

roll it up to be placed

under the warm spring-breeze quilt

and I will unroll it in the night

when my beloved arrives.

-- Hwang Chini (1511~1541).

Sadly, this work only has the English and does not include the Korean. Regardless, it seems to be a good poetic translation in that the translation is still in sijo form. Other poems in this work are from the yangban though some purport to be from commoners. Were they educated to write sijo? It would be a rare occurrence for certain !

The bright moon in the blue heaven

shall be able to see my fair one's face.

Why can't I be like the moon

sailing across the skies?

Will my love ever think of me

while watching the moon?

---Won Wi

Recently from www.Abebooks.com a used bookseller aggragator I purchased Songs of the Kisaeng. I should have it by this summer. There are a few rare copies of it out there. I will review it as soon as I get it and rifle through it. Until then, may you stay inspired !

A Tea Source for Kigo in Haiku

In writing haiku poems, at times, one may employ a kigo or word or phrase that signifies a particular season. Certain kigo that are obvious to us westerners would be snow, freezing rain, falling leaves etc.

In Japanese haiku there are also many very specific kigo that one may employ in their English haiku. One excellent source of Japanese kigo is the Japanese Tea Master's Almanac pictured below.

This book serves as a resource for those practicing Chanoyu or the Japanese Tea Ceremony.

For each month the book has Japanese festivals and ceremonies that are practiced for that particular month, Memorial days (mainly for commemorating people important to the history of the tea ceremony), Flowers that are symbolic or bloom that particular month, Cakes and Meals that are served for that month and finally Kigo for that particular month.

What makes this book so useful for haiku writers is that the kigo are very often specific to a particular month though they may also be used a bit beyond at times to connect to the broader season depending on the particular words connotations.

The book also provides one or more famous haiku using that particular kigo. The poems are written in Japanese, phonetically in English then with English translation making it an excellent source for haiku writers.

One example from the book is :

"U no hana kudahsi

This expression refers to the drizzling rain that spoils (kudasu or kuchisasu) u no hana in bloom. To overcome the resulatant ennui, it might be an idea to have tea using the tea box called u no hana. A cloudy sky at this time is called u no hana gumori.

Yuki no na no/ tokete u no hana/ kudashi kana

The image of snow has disappeared now that

the rain drenched un no hana decay"

hana is the Japanese word for flower or flowers as in hanami: flower viewing.

This book is available from Amazon.com in America and from www.whatthebook.com in Korea.
Other kigo in may are Baku shu ya: wheat harvest time, Natsu no tsuki: the summer moon
For May it also has a long description of how in Japan people would change their tatami mats, put on lighter kimono 'koromo gae' and wear colors for May such as light purple and very light pink 'kakitsubata goromo.

Following the Japanse way of tea is about following the seasons and changes in nature. These changes are reflected in changes in the tearoom. They are also reflected in the scroll hung in the tokonoma. Often times the scroll with have a haiku that employs a kigo.

P.S.
One other websource for kigo is
500 Essential Kigo selected by Kenkichi Yamamoto. Best wishes and happy writing ! MWT.

Sijo West

On http://www.abebooks.com/ I ordered several issues of the English journal Sijo West from which these two sijo poems come. If you can get your hands on any of these old issues I highly recommend them. For 3-4 years poets from across North America (many of them haiku poets) were writing sijo poems and sending them in to the journal. There are quite a few gems. Here's just two I dug up:

Natural Selection

A well-bred bride for the prince
    is what the emporor seeks
As he studies hopefuls sipping tea;
    the one the prince loves
Chews gum with a snap, and slants glances
    that make promises.

--- name obscured, From Sijo West #3 Fall 1997 pg.21.

Sorry I couldn't make out the author of that one, it was blurry on the copy I had, although I distinctly remember reading it in one of my sijo books as well.....
Here's one on a very modern theme bringing the ancient form of shijo into our times:

Space Waste

Since blasting free from earth
to travel in reaches of space,

a gang of astronauts gaze
on a cloud-clad Blue Marble

dump their pots of pee to streak
as icy shards in our communal void.

--Ronan, Eugene, of Oregon a noted writer of haiku and related verse.
From Sijo West #2 Summer 1996 p.9

As we can see demonstrated in this sijo, traditionally, a sijo should have a surprize or twist in the narrative in the last couplet. This one definitely fits the bill.

These days my blogging shall be a little infrequent; I'm busy giving and marking exams these next three weeks. I'm also attempting to recreate one of the earliest instances of tea recorded from 350 A.D. Its more of a soup than a tea using onion ginger and oranges. I call it Kuo Po soup after the man who wrote the dictionary in which a discription of it is found. You can read about it on my other blog http://www.aboutteabusan.blogspot.com/ in a few weeks time. --MWT.

Rainy season preparations: Calligraphy and Tea.

.

Rainy season is coming along with the exciting typhoons. According to the KMA weather website the first typhoon of the season will miss us, hitting Osaka instead.

Lately I've been stocking up on tea to prepare for the weekends when its too rainy to go outside. I also set up my calligraphy set on the veranda. Here's a shijo I wrote a few weeks ago:

 

 Trees point angrily at sky,

black branches sprout like old vines.

Cherry blossoms floated like cloud!

spring here is a cold grey thief.

Grind the mok, paint a scroll,

only tea can save us from him.

--MWT.

Mok is charcoal that comes in stick form, sold at any art or stationery store here, used for brush form calligraphy.

Years ago I bought a cheap calligraphy set at a small 문벙구/stationery store. It came with everything but the paper. (화선지 is korean for calligraphy paper sold anywhere you can get a good stick of mok). The set (pictured to the right here) cost only 12,000 won ! It might be hard to find, although it might not. You'll have to check your local MoombangGu.

 I recommend this set to anyone starting in on Asian calligraphy; Japanese Korean Chinese: the line strokes are all the same just varying characters. Over the years I'd been upgrading the parts of it: I got a more expensive pointier brush, a stone 벼루 instead of the plastic one in the set, etc.

Another good purchase was a good beginners book on calligraphy. I recommend 꽃들 한글서예/flowers Korean calligraphy. I got mine at the calligraphy & paper store in Nampodong. Its great as it shows you how to make each individual brush stroke. I still have much to learn with calligraphy, having taken only 3 months at a calligraphy hagwon and 1 semester at a college here so I don't plan on teaching it for another year.
For those interested in learning and finding their Korean skills lacking I recommend getting one of your friends to set you up for 1-2 months at one of the calligraphy hagwons. The teachers mainly instruct you by drawing a few lines for you and then you try it. Its instruction by copying little langage ability is needed as you're learning a skill. The only vocabulary you'll need is up, down, left and right (things you can get with a decent level 1 Korean). The only other vocabulary you'll need is : 

화선지: white paper
붓: brush
먹: your charcoal ink stick. You grind this down in your 벼루.
벼루: graduated stone for grinding charcoal into the water.

Really, that's it. Then its class time: where you'll follow the teacher, doing as they do. At the hagwon I spent 4 classes doing horizontal lines. Then another month doing verticle lines. This summer its circles for me and presto! I'll be able to do hangul! All at the Sawyeah hagwon. (I got alot of other instruction from the college but more on flowers and teapots later)...Don't let the langage barrier stop you! Make the effort ! Fear not : you can only win. --MWT.



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Tales of a Gisaeng

Perhaps its the atmosphere of living next to Igigdae Hill/Park where two gisaeng jumped off the cliff with a Japanese general inspiring me. Old legends have a certain power that grows beyond what a real factual account would have. The story sounds suspiciously like another story "a patriotic kisaeng named Nongae in the late 16th century...while entertaining Japanese generals at the Choksongnu Pavilion that overlooks the Nam River in South Kyongsang Province, Nongae led Japanese general Keyamura Rokusuke to a cliff, embraced him and cast herself into the river, killing them both". I found the latter version of the story here @ Han Cinema. The story sounds more reliable than the Igigdae story which doesn't mention which general and gisaeng. Perhaps the Igidae story came from this one.

The story of the gisaeng taking out a general reminds me of the story of koreas ninja the Ja-gaek who were male acrobats trained to be assassins by a korean general of the Hwa-ryung warriors...but I digress...

Lately I've been reading up on all things gisaeng. Gisaeng were the Goryo and Choseon Dynasty entertainers. They were very much like the Japanese Geisha. Later this week I shall find myself in the comic book room beneath the Kyungsung McDonalds reading "Gisaeng Iyagi/Story" by Kim Dong-hwa.

One of the most legendary gisaeng was Hwang Jini. In part, due to the success of "Memoirs of a Geisha" back in 2005, interest in Hwang Jini sparked the production of both a Hwang Jini movie and TV series.
Of the gisaeng she was one of the more prolific, writing 60 shijo poems that still survive today, (I've got a book on order about gisaeng shijo poems, book review coming in a few months...).
Her beauty and talents became legendary as she charmed great scholars of the era, among them a Buddhist monk named Jijok who later was excommunicated because of her.

This picture entitled "7 girls" from the Franklin Francis Carpeter Library of Congress Collection shows 7 young girls who were gisaeng in training. Girls as young as 8 years old began training as gisaeng becoming actual gisaeng at 16 or 17 years old.  According to legend, Hwang Jini was the illigitimate child of a yangban and the gisaeng Heon Keum.  

Gisaeng girl 1890. Gisaeng went through 8 or 9 years of strict training in poetry, song, dance and tea ceremony.

In 2006 actress Ha Ji Won played Hwang-Jini in a TV series entitled Hwang-Jini.  I'm wondering what happened to the 2007 TV production entitled Haeauhwa  (해어화, 解語花) which is about another, though less famous, gisaeng. You can pick up some parts of the Hwang-Jini TV series with English subtitles on youtube. Though to watch the entire series you'll probably have to purchase it on DVD at Someyeon's DVD/CD store. The one with all the korean TV series' on DVD there.  

Actress Song Hye Kyo playing Hwang Jini in a movie (I'm off to rent and watch it this afternoon. Most video stores here have a copy of it. All you have to do is give the video store your phone number to start an account with them and maybe your foreign card which has your address. Videos are usually 2000 won each for 1-2 days.  

As Harvard Professor and shijo poet David R. McCann relates,  "some of the most famous kisaeng poems were composed to persuade prominent scholars to spend the night".

Here's one by Hwang-Jini below:










청산리 靑山裡 벽계수碧溪水야 수이 감을 자랑마라.
일도창해一到滄海하면 다시 오기 어려워라
명월(明月)이 만공산滿空山하니 쉬어간들 어떠리.
In this poem 벽계수/Byuk-Gye Soo is the name of the Yangban Hwang-Jini is addressing the poem to. Historical records show there was a man of royal birth of that name.
명월 (明月)or bright moon is Hwang-Jini's nickname. Thus the poem translates as:

Don't be proud, clear water/Byuk-GyeSoo of running free to the beach!
You will find it hard to go back, once the azure ocean you reach.
Take a break, while the moon is bright in the sky, I beseech.
--Hwang-Jini. Translated by Kim Young Nahg.

As part of the Hwang-Jini craze that has swept Korea, Korean Vogue brought a bunch of models to Paris and dressed them up like gisaeng for a photoshoot. Later I'll bring you more of Hwang-Jini and other gisaeng's shijo poems. Until then, I'm logging off so I can watch the Hwang-Jini movie. Till next time...
 --MWT.