This Summer, Solveig Throndardottir will be offering three intensive workshops at Pennsic outside of the ordinary Pennsic University. These courses will meet daily and will be organized as "clubs". These three courses are: Bungaku Nyuumon (Introduction to Literary Arts), Chadou Nyuumon (Introduction to Tea), and Nougaku Nyuumon (Introduction to Noh Theatre). The web page will provide information about materials which workshop participants might want to obtain before arriving at Pennsic.
Solveig Throndardottir will offer the following week-long workshops organized as "clubs" at Clan Yamakaminari:
- Bungaku Nyuumon includes: Japanese poetics, Japanese calligraphy, sumie painting, inkan carving, and designing your own kao. The goal is to create a complete work of art consisting of a sumie painting with an accompanying signed and sealed poem. While there are many genres which may be described in this way, we will be paying special attention to haiga which are a comparatively modern form. These paintings are often polychromatic and are accompanied by haiku or imayou poems. While haiku are exemplified by the seventeenth century poet Matsuo Basho, the form originated in the sixteenth century and appears to derive from the much earlier renge form of linked poems.
- Chadou Nyuumon includes: tea aesthetics and philosophy, basic movement, courtesy, introduction to use of essential tea implements, introduction to participating in a tea ceremony, introduction to bunryaku temae, optional participation in a chaji. The tea ceremony provides an opportunity to unify many aspects of Japanese culture including: calligraphy, incense appreciation, flower arranging, pottery, architecture, and many other things. The style of tea will be loosely based on Urasenke tea practice with modifications to restore original forms. However, Solveig Throndardottir is not a licensed Urasenke instructor. Rather, we will be following the precepts of the Seishinryuu (pure heart school) of Muheki'an (the hut without walls).
- Nohgaku Nyuumon includes: noh dance, noh chant, noh music, noh dramatics, kyougen dramatics, and production of a short play cycle. The Noh theatre is over six hundred years old and dates from at least Kan'ami the father of Ze'ami. This is the popular theater form of the buke (military class) of the Muromachi period. There are two independently evolved but linked theatrical forms. Noh is the serious form while Kyougen the comic form. Noh plays have enjoyed set scripts for six hundred years while kyougen was an improvisational theatre similar to comedia del'arte throughout period. You may have caught a glimps of kyougen during the recent "Last Samurai" motion picture. Noh dance is very popular in contemporary Japan with many amateur shimai performances. The style of Noh performance will be loosely based on Kita Ryu which is a fairly recent noh style. However, Solveig Throndardottir is not a Kita Ryu instructor.
Solveig Throndardottir will offer the following short classes through the Pennsic University:
- Religion of the Samurai. An exploration of medieval Japanese religion from organized shintoh and folk religion through Zen Buddhism.
- Mythology & Superstitution. An exploration of the gods, ghosts, and monsters of medieval Japan. Includes folks tales and medieval literature.
- Court and Folk Dance. An introduction to basic movement used in Japanese dance and how these movements are used in Japanese dance. Court dance derived from T'ang dynasty China and the folk dances of the summer Bon Festival will be introduced.
Advanced Preparation and Materials. The accompanying web site [see link from headline above --ed] will provide advance resources which will help you acquire materials for use during these classes. This web site is very much a work in progress, so you should check it every couple of weeks to see what has been added. For example, the web site will include notes about how to acquire or make the fukusa which is used for the tea ceremony.
