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The Netherlands Trip Day 3 (1):The Royal Palace

On Day 3, I went to the Dutch Royal Palace in the central area in Amsterdam. I don’t know why but I’ve been interested in a court culture in Europe since I was a boy. I majored in European history for my bachelor and got interested in a complex of European history dynamics: from a dynasty to a dynasty, from monarchy to republic, from Roman empire to the Catholic world. Among them, the court culture which was kind of a nest to the classical arts and music we are still enjoying sparks my curiosity; as a Patron, they supported various artists and many masterpieces were born with some financial backup from noble/high-class families. The monarch and its family in European countries were also great supports to the beautiful arts. Moses' Room, the abdication of throne Usually, the new Monarch appears followed by the former Monarch passed away, e.g. the King Charles III of Britain was enthroned followed by death of his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II. That said, for the Dutch Royal Fam...
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The Netherlands Trip Day 2-(2): Rijskmuseum/National museum in Amsterdam

The Netherlands bore varous artists throughout the history and Rijskmuseum has a lot of collections by those Dutch genius. I'd known several masterpieces by Vermeer but I also came to know Rembrandt from reading a Japanese book called " Gairo-wo-yuku(街路をゆく )" or "Walking the road" by a famous Japanese writer Shiba Ryotaro (司馬遼太郎 1923-1996) . Shiba is famous for historical novels but he also travelled around the world and left a series of travel essays. He'd been to the Netherlands twice in 1980s in the middle of the Cold War and wrote about his experiences in one of the essays.  In his book, he mentioned his enthusiasm to Rembrandt's paintings, which sparked my curiosity. Fortunately,  Rijskmuseum has the genuine "Night Watch", one of the famous paintings by Rembrandt, about which Shiba intensively mentioned in his book. The "Night Watch" was under its renovation work; it was hung in a renovation room in the museum's oval room. We...

The Netherlands Trip Day 2-(1): Rijskmuseum/National museum in Amsterdam

You can refer back to the previous articles: ・ Day1 Good Morning, Amsterdam! I didn’t remember when I fell asleep in a hostel. Upon a long flight with some nervousness in a place unknown to me, I was tired to have a deep sleep. I woke up at 2 am in the middle of night, realizing I was a bit sweaty so I took a shower. Well, the water was too cold and didn’t come out of the shower head enough. Like a stream in woods, I needed to scoop up the water with hands. I managed to wash my fair and body somehow but I felt a bit cold, so I went directly back to my bed to get myself warm. I fell asleep without noticing again and regained consciousness at 7 am.  Day 2 began with breakfast search: I should have bought groceries to cook breakfast in the kitchen last night…. Anyways, I put my valuables with my Nikcon D750 SRL inherited by my late father into my daily bag and walked into the downtown of Amsterdam. Into a breakfast journey April 27 was Sunday, so the city wasn’t that busy in the morni...

the Netherlands trip Day1: People with orange colour

The cheapest flight from Japan to Europe is via China in most cases. I flied with C hina Eastern Airline  from Osaka to Pudong Airport and then to Amsterdam. The transit time was just for 1.5 hours at Pudong so I had to rush to the transit process: the arrival dock was a bit far from the transit reception where all of the international transit passengers should pass the passport control and security check. I'm usually carrying a backpack with me without baggage check-in, in which the whole belongings are packed for the entire trip, so I'm a bit nervous for passing my bag into the X-ray to be checked by insepctors anytime. Well,  if they find mines suspicious, I have to open it and show the whole packed items to them: simply, it would be wasting time. This time: all clear, nothing happened. First encounter I'd bought an e-sim for my mobile networking in the Netherlands, so I turned on my smartphone and checked the Google map to map out the route I would take to my hostel whe...

the Netherlands

Japan has a holiday season from the end of April to the beginning in May, which we call “the Golden Week”. During the week, I often travel overseas except for a few years under the COVID 19. This year, I went to the Netherlands.   You may ask why the Netherlands? I always chose a place to go based on the facts; ・ I’m yet to visit ・ financially reasonable air tickets are available; and ・ the place shall be physically distant from Japan (so that I can enjoy the long vacation)   In most cases, I prefer Europe to other areas because I majored in European history for the bachelor degree at my university and I’m interested in arts coming from the medieval Europe. In this context, the Netherlands is a place hitting my heart this time.   To me, the Netherlands is a place of “Huis Ten Bosch”, a theme park for experiencing Dutch cultures, based in Nagasaki, Kyushu. Lending to it, Japan and the Netherlands have been in a good relationship since 1600s AD. At the time, the Shogun at T...

松風の音

茶道の世界では、茶釜から立ち上るお湯の音に特別な意味が込められています。お茶を点てる際、釜の湯がちょうどよい温度に達すると、「松風(まつかぜ)」と呼ばれる独特の音が響きます。 松風の音 「松風の音」とは、茶釜の湯が沸騰直前のほどよい温度(約88℃前後)に達したときに聞こえる、シュンシュン、ヒューという柔らかな音です。これは松林を吹き抜ける風の音に似ていることから名付けられました。この温度でお茶を点てると、苦みもマイルドに抑えつつ茶本来の甘みも引き出すことが出来ます。この絶妙な温度加減を、昔の茶人たちは音で見極めてきました。千利休も、松風の音こそが抹茶を点てるのに最も適した状態だと説いています。 お湯の温度が低すぎると、抹茶とのなじみが悪く、茶筅でしっかりなお湯となじませても、抹茶が溶けきれずダマが出来てしまいます。また、逆に熱すぎると、そもそもお客さんが飲むのに苦労するのもありますし、抹茶の渋みが引き立ちすぎてしまい、苦くてまずいお茶となってしまいます。 「いい塩梅」と松風の音 日本文化では「中庸」や「いい塩梅」といった、極端でないほどよさが重んじられます。松風の音もまさにその象徴。強すぎず、弱すぎず。偏らない姿勢が点前座にいる茶人には求められます。 また、この音が静寂な茶室に広がると、なぜか心地よく感じるものです。茶席は、茶の味だけでなく、こうした自然の演出も楽しむ「総合芸術」の要素があります。点前役にとっては湯の適温を、客人にとっては風流をもたらしてくれるのが「松風の音」です。

茶筅(ちゃせん)

茶道を習っていると、ごく自然に日常の中で使うようになる「茶筅」という言葉。今回は、その茶筅について、改めてご紹介したいと思います。 茶筅とは? 茶筅は、抹茶を点てるときに使う道具で、茶碗に入れた抹茶とお湯を混ぜ、泡立てながらなめらかに仕上げるために使います。素材は主に竹で、1本の竹から何十本、何百本にも細く裂いた穂先を手仕事で整え、糸で形を整えて作られています。 奈良県の「高山(たかやま)」という地域が茶筅の名産地として有名で、高山茶筅は多くの流派で使われています。 糸掛けとは? 茶筅の中心部には「糸掛け」と呼ばれる部分があります。これは、裂いた穂を整えるために巻かれている糸のこと。この糸掛けによって穂が安定し、茶を点てる際のバランスも保たれます。 ほとんどの茶筅では、この糸掛けの糸に 黒色 が使われています。理由のひとつは、茶筅が直接抹茶に触れるため、使用するうちにどうしても汚れが目立ってしまうから。黒色だと、その汚れが目立ちにくいという実用性があるのです。 石州流の茶筅は「白」 私が学んでいる 石州流 では、糸掛けの糸に 白色 を使います。これは、単に色の違いではなく、**「潔白」**という意味を込めたもの。 汚れを隠さない。だからこそ、 汚さないように点前を洗練させる という、美意識がそこにあります。使う道具そのものを清らかに扱い、誠実な所作を目指すという、石州流らしい精神が表れている部分です。 茶筅の「しまい方」にも流派の違いが 出稽古などで道具を持ち運ぶ際、茶筅は茶碗の中にしまいこむのですが、このときの向きにも流派によって違いがあります。 多くの流派では、 柄を上 、 穂先を下 にして、茶碗の中に入れます(穂先が茶碗に接する形)。 ところが石州流では、 柄を下、穂先を上 にして収めます。これには、いくつかの意味があります。 穂先には何も塗られておらず、使い方によってはすぐに汚れてしまう。だからこそ、「潔白である」ことをあえて見せる。 茶筅という道具の形を考えたとき、「胴体」にあたる柄を下にした方が安定する。穂先を下にするのは、言わば逆立ちさせているようなもの。 道具を あるべき姿のまま使う という、石州流の大切にしている価値観を表している。 このように、何気なく使っている道具にも、流派ごとに思想が込められて...