Beltane\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Full Flower Moon<\/p>\n
Two tours this morning.\u00a0 The first, a Visual Thinking Strategies, for third graders from Maxfield school in St. Paul went well.\u00a0 The kids attention petered out after about 45 minutes and we went on search of things they found interesting like guns (flintlock rifles) and a painting of a small dead boy wearing a dress.<\/p>\n
The second, a public tour, had the Museum given title, Steeped in Tradition:\u00a0 a tour of Chinese and Japanese art.\u00a0 I thought, well, why not talk about the origins of the Japanese tea ceremony.\u00a0 We began in India with Vishnu and the Ghandara Buddha, stopped by the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara in China and smaller statue of the Buddha, then went into the Taoist gallery.\u00a0 After the Taoist gallery we visited the Song dynasty ceramics for a Chan Buddhist inspired tea cup, then onto Japan for our fine statue of Amitabha Buddha, the Buddha of the Pure Land.<\/p>\n
We first hit the tea ceremony proper with the shoin audience hall, used by Shoguns as well Buddhist abbotts for ceremonial occasions including the first, elaborate, large and showy tea ceremonies.\u00a0 After that we went to the tea wares gallery to look at tea cups and discuss the notion of wabi-sabi.\u00a0 The tour ended at the tea-house and brief walk through of the purpose of the tea ceremony.\u00a0 There was only one woman on the tour but she had an interest in Asian art and knew something of China and Thailand.<\/p>\n
Back home.\u00a0 Nap.\u00a0 Now, workout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beltane\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Full Flower Moon Two tours this morning.\u00a0 The first, a Visual Thinking Strategies, for third graders from Maxfield school in St. Paul went well.\u00a0 The kids attention petered out after about 45 minutes and we went on search of things they found interesting like guns (flintlock rifles) and a painting of a small dead … Continue reading The Tea Ceremony on Tour<\/span>