Awaited Ginza Holiday Returns to Chicago with Waza Artisans from Japan
Red, orange, yellow, blue and purple, rows of colorful Japanese paper lanterns evoke childhood memories of summer festivals. Awaited Ginza Holiday returned to the Midwest Buddhist Temple in Chicago with Japanese traditional artisans for the first time in four years after almost all the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted both in the U.S. and Japan.
Ginza Holiday has been hosted by the Midwest Buddhist Temple (MTB) to welcome visitors with Japanese food and culture. This year, MTB celebrated the 65th anniversary of Ginza Holiday for three days, from August 11 to 13, with popular teriyaki chicken and other traditional food and drinks, and a variety of venders displayed and sold antiques, potteries, accessories, Japanese flavored T-shirts, kimono dresses, and more.
On the stage, traditional Japanese music, dance, and martial arts were performed all days. Performers were Hoetsu taiko, Japanese taiko drumming; Choyokan Keindo; Chicago Koto Group, traditional string music; Na Kapuna Ukulele, Hawaiian music; MBT Taiko, taiko drumming; Chicago Aikikai, aikido demonstration; and MBT Minyo, Japanese folk dance.
Japanese traditional artisans were Ceramicist Eiji Kinoshita from Oita Prefecture, Masahiro Kawakami of Some-Tenugui “Fujiya” from Asakusa, Tokyo; Ichimatsu Doll maker Meisho Yamazaki from Tokyo; and Japanese calligrapher Shihoko from Oita Prefecture.
It was a rare opportunity for Ginza visitors to be able to talk with artisans and buy an authentic craft from original maker directory.
Visitors in Ginza Holiday
Sergey (L) and Gabriela Kalmakov
Sergey and Gabriela Kalmakov were pleased to come to the full version of Ginza Holiday. The couple visited the Ginza Holiday Light last year, but it was cautiously held due to lingering COVID-19 effects. Although teriyaki chicken and soft drinks were available, performances were held on the ground level, and the festival venue was a little quiet.
Q: How did you find Ginza Holiday?
Sergey: One of our colleagues invited us. She is a Japanese American and come here with us, but she left. She has her duty earlier.
Q: Do you like Japanese culture?
Sergey: absolutely. I went to Japan, and this is a Japanese T-shirt, Hokusai (printed on the shirt).
I went to Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Nikko, and climbed Mt. Fuji.
Q: Did you have any difficulty in Japan?
Sergey: No, I didn’t think so, no, and it was one of the best trips, I enjoyed it.
It was 6 years ago, exactly like August to September…
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Ayse Pogue came to Ginza with the Kalmakovs. She has been working in the Japanese Garden of the Botanic Garden in Glencoe since 2014 and especially, taking care of the trees in there.
After getting a master degree from horticulture, she began to work in the Japanese garden. She said she loves to work in the garden.
According Pogue, there is one cherry tree in the garden and few more cherry trees close by the garden.
Back to 2012, the Chicago Shimpo reported that 20 cherry trees were donated to the Botanic Garden by the Embassy of Japan in the U.S. with cooperation of Japanese companies to commemorate the 100th year anniversary of cherry-tree planting at the Tidal Basin in Washington D.C. Then Consul General Yoshifumi Okamura planted the first tree of the 20 at a bank of the Waterfall Garden on March 25, 2012, and four more trees supposed to be planted at the bank. Other 15 trees supposed to be planted near the Spider Island later that spring.
Pogue has visited the Phoenix Garden in Jackson Park, Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford and more Japanese gardens.
This year, cherry trees bloomed earlier than usual, and all the cherry flowers had gone when a hanami event was held in the Phoenix Garden.
Pogue smiled and said that the Japan House in Champaign was the same, and nobody could predict when they bloom.
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David Ishikawa (R), Hina Renman (C), and their daughter
David Ishikawa came to Ginza Holiday with his wife, Hina Renman, for the first time in his life. He said, “I didn’t know about Ginza.”
Ishikawa talked about a brief story of his family. Regarding his father’s side, his great-grandparents came to the U.S. from Japan, and his grandparents were born in California and then moved to Chicago after WWII, but they moved back to California sometimes later. So his grandparents were 100% Japanese Americans, but Ishikawa wasn’t sure if his grandparents knew about Ginza. His father remained in the Chicago area and formed his family in Arlington Heights, where Ishikawa was born and raised.
From his father’s side, Ishikawa is Yonsei, the fourth generation of Japanese American; however, he grew up outside of the JA community and didn’t know about Ginza.
Q: How did you find Ginza Holiday?
Ishikawa: I was just looking for things to do and saw it online. I thought it would be good, especially, for my daughter to come and see it. It’s a kind of experience to learn about the traditional culture and more.
Q: Have you had any connection with Japan?
Ishikawa: No. Just my family is here and we don’t have any connection back to Japan as far as we know.
Q: Have you been to Japan?
Ishikawa: No, but it is on a list of place to go, hopefully soon!
Interviews with Artisans from Japan
Ceramicist Eiji Kinoshita
Ceramicist Eiji Kinoshita enjoys conversations with Ginza visitors.
Ceramicist Eiji Kinoshita has appeared Ginza for more than 20 years, and his pottery collectors were waiting for his arrival.
Q: How have you been for those four years?
Kinoshita: All my solo-exhibitions at department stores were cancelled during the COVID-19 pandemic, and I’m very pleased to return to Ginza.
My customers have been waiting for me, and my new works were sold out on the first day of Ginza. They were huge plates and heavy, but the customers carried the plates by their hands. They are collectors of my works.
Q: I’m glad to hear that. There are many other visitors looking at your potteries.
Kinoshita: There is a great turnout here with local people. In the popular sightseeing spots like town of Yufuin and Beppu in Oita, where my kiln is located, there are a lot of travelers from overseas. It’s good to see that those spots are getting busy again.
Q: Typhoon No. 6 just passed near the Kyushu area including Oita before you traveled to Chicago. Were you O.K. to come here?
Kinoshita: Oh, it was terrible. The typhoon left heavy rain even it had passed Kyushu, and all the flights were cancelled across Kyushu. Only way to come to Chicago was going Tokyo to get a flight to Chicago, but I couldn’t ride a train or bus because they didn’t accept my potteries as pieces of baggage. So I picked calligrapher Shihoko in Oita and drove to Tokyo for 17 hours. It was a tough drive, but Shihoko and I were lucky enough to get on a flight.
I want to add to say this, after the pandemic, flight fee rise to double, and additional baggage charge was also doubled. But I’m really happy to come here and reunite with Ginza visitors.
Q: Thank you very much!
Calligrapher Shihoko
Calligrapher Shihoko from Oita, Japan
In the venue of Ginza, Shihoko was providing a service with a small fee to write an American’s name by using kanji characters on a paper fan which is called uchiwa in Japanese.
After graduated from college, she became a history teacher in Osaka Prefecture, and now she has been teaching calligraphy in her private class in Oita.
Q: Did you start shodo, a way of calligraphy, when you were small?
Shihoko: About six years old. I continued it little by little, and was involved in shodo really seriously after I got into college. While I was studying at a college in Kyoto, I met Shiryu Morita, a vanguard calligrapher, and also read his book about shodo my life was really changed. If I could say it was the second start of my life, I’ve been walking it for 50 years since then.
Q: You were a history teacher, so you studied history about kanji characters.
Shihoko: If you hadn’t learned about the back ground of kanji, you would never know a joy of shodo. I could devote myself to continue to practice calligraphy because I studied it.
Q: Now you teach the calligraphy.
Shihoko: Yes. In these years, a number of grade-school students decreased, and there are many seniors, so I want seniors to do practice shodo, which gives tranquility around you and evokes your interests in kanji culture. So I want to work on calligraphy with all the people beyond generations.
Today, I’m pleased to see that young Americans are enjoying walking around with uchiwa which has their kanji name on its surface.
Q: It’s really good idea to write Americans’ name with Kanji.
Shihoko: I’m enjoying creating their name with kanji in the best way. So it’s a unique name in the world.
Q: It is not easy to write beautiful kanji characters, especially, when you write a card or senders’ name on an envelope. How could we write beautiful kanji in any occasion?
Shihoko: Only practice can make it. If you practice one million times, you can write exactly what you want. It would take three years, five years, or 10 years, but if you devote yourself to do one thing, you can get it in any occasion.
Q: You came to Chicago for the first time. How do you like Chicago?
Shihoko: I feel very good to come here. Everyone is kind to me.
This festival is unique and outstanding. I soon came to understand that everyone came together to hold this Ginza Holiday, a wonderful festival, and I was impressed by that. Girls in anime costume are also visitors of Ginza. They are so cute!
Q: Thank you very much.
Ichimatsu-Doll Maker Meisho Yamazaki
Ichimatsu-Doll Maker Meisho Yamazaki
Meisho Yamazaki is one of the few traditional Ichimatsu-doll makers in Japan. She used to be a professional figure maker and worked on kaiju monster creation. Yamazaki, however, met Ichimatsu-doll Master Kokan Fujimura and decided to study Ichimatsu-doll making under Fujimura. She is one of the only two students who were accepted by Master Fujimura to take over his traditional doll-making arts.
Yamazaki made a Ginza debut in 2014, and this year was her fourth visit to Ginza.
Q: How have you been during the pandemic?
Yamazaki: I wasn’t much affected. I could hold my annual solo-exhibition at a major department store in Tokyo.
I also relaxed a little, so I could activate my creativity to work on what I wanted to do.
Q: Is this a new doll? It’s beautiful and resembles you.
Yamazaki: This doll is my image of Tengu Monster Queen.
Tengu is a legendary monster, who lives in a deep mountain, has supernatural powers, and flies in the sky freely. Thus the doll’s sleeves are made of feathers.
Q: How did you expand upon your Tengu image?
Yamazaki: In my image, Tengu is a tutelary deity to oversee the balance of ecosystem in a wood. It has a role to protect the life of trees, insects, soil, water, and something like that things.
Dress of the doll is very important, so that I used feathers for its sleeves, then I sew kimono and dressed it the kimono. And hairstyle is also important. My final work for the doll was to create the best matching hairstyle for it.
I previously created several Tengu dolls which were all males. The latest one was really my perfect image of Tengu, so I had to make a perfect new Tengu doll beyond the previous one. This new doll is Queen. That was an idea came up to my mind.
Q: You poured so much of your energy to create this Tengu Queen. Do you feel sadness to sell it to someone?
Yamazaki: Well… I don’t feel it. It is my pleasure that my doll collectors cherish my dolls.
◆ Meisho Yamazaki will have a solo exhibit in September from 15th to 21st at Keio Department in Shinjuku, Tokyo.
Some-Tenugui Maker Masahiro Kawakami
Masahiro Kawakami, the third generation of Fujiya, traditional some-tenugui shop in Asakusa, Tokyo
Masahiro Kawakami is the third generation of Fujiya, traditional some-tenugui shop on a main street of Asakusa, Tokyo. Some-Tenugui is a dyed hand towel, but artistic design and coloring of a tenugui is too good to just wipe your hands. Traditionally, tenugui is used as an art object to decollate walls in your house or used as a table mat or many other ways.
Q: Fujiya is located on the Nakamise Street, a main street in Asakusa. I think the area was hard hit by the pandemic.
Kawakami: That’s true. There were zero sightseers, and it was the first time for me to see the end of the Nakamise Street from my shop.
Q: How did you overcome the situation?
Kawakami: We established our website and opened online-shopping site. Please take a look at https://tenugui-fujiya.jp/
Q: Now the street is full of sightseers.
Kawakami: Certainly! Yes it is. Foreign travelers have increased, and dance activities and festivals started in many areas. We have many tenugui orders and have to catch up with the orders and goods in the store.
Q: It sounds good, but you became very busy.
Kawakami: I’m doing design works, and the people in the each production section are working hard.
Q: What is the new design this year?
Kawakami: All of the new ones were sold out. I brought traditional designs such as Mount Fuji and miller lions from kabuki. I think many Ginza visitors enjoyed buying those traditional patterns.
Q: How do you feel about being in Chicago for the first time in four years?
Kawakami: I feel nostalgic atmosphere here in Ginza. I can see familiar faces who are good in health. I ate a teriyaki chicken, and it was the same delicious taste as usual. I feel I’m home now.
Q: Thank you very much.