The American School of Japanese Arts
Frank Tall discovers Japanese culture in California

How would you like to spend a week at a Zen monastery watching sunsets over the Pacific, while learning tea ceremony, kyogen (comic theatre), shintaido (a martial art), and calligraphy from masters of those arts? You can and I did, at the American School of Japanese Arts.

The school is modeled on the now unfortunately defunct program run by the Oomoto sect in Kameoka, which spared no expense in teaching traditional Japanese arts to visitors from around the world. Two graduates of the Oomoto program, realtor Liz Kenner and her husband, sculptor Mario Uribe, set up their program in California 12 years ago to provide a similar experience to those who could not afford the money and time to go to Japan, and now it is the only program left.

This is a labor of love for Liz and Mario and their very capable teachers. Its current venue is Green Gulch Zen Monastery adjoining Muir Beach near San Francisco, a delightful place to just "hang out", enjoying the nature and the excellent food grown organically on site. Meditation instruction and group practice is available but not pushed. We were in fact kept so busy I didn't manage to score much leisure or meditation time. We had classes in the mornings and afternoons and were often occupied in the evenings as well, as Liz gave an ikebana demonstration or Mario fired the kiln in which the raku pots we had made were baked.

There were about 15 students in the program. For all classes except shintaido we divided into two groups so that we could have a more personalized instruction. Our classmates ranged in age from 14 to 70, hailing from England, a number of American states, and myself from Canada. The 5 teenagers were really great kids, definitely improving my views on that age group! They were a lot of fun to work with. We stayed in comfortable rooms in the monastery guesthouse; we older folks had our own bedrooms, with each pair sharing a bathroom. The teenagers shared bedrooms. We dressed in traditional clothing all week - I must confess I never got the hang of how to tie all the cords, but my classmates were always helpful.

Most of the teachers have been with the program since its inception. Kazuaki Tanahashi is a master calligrapher and author and translator of books on Zen. Yuriko Doi was the first woman to be trained in kyogen in Japan and has her own troupe in San Francisco. Christy Bartlett and Scott MacDougall have been teaching tea ceremony in the Urasenke tradition for many years. Haruyoshi Ito is the North American leader of Shintaido, a new martial art which emphasizes cooperative exercises in additional to traditional ones.

I personally couldn't stand the attention to detail required in tea ceremony, but all the rest of the students enjoyed it. I am normally engaged in very cerebral activities, so shintaido, calligraphy and kyogen were a welcome stretch for me. Our instructors were patient and helpful so I learned a lot.

At the end of the week, we exhibited our skills to friends and relatives, in particular putting on a hilarious performance of a classic kyogen play about a yamabushi (mountain priest) who is too confident of his spiritual powers. We learned that the rhythm ju, ha, kyu (slow, fast, faster) is central to not only kyogen but other arts as well.

All in all, it was a great way to spend a week in August. Green Gulch is in a shaded valley, with a cool microclimate. I highly recommend the program to all those interested in traditional Japanese culture. The price is reasonable -- last year it was US$1250 all-inclusive. For further information, contact Liz or Mario at:

The American School of Japanese Arts
2000 Los Olivos
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
(707) 537-9507

Frank Tall

Frank Tall is a professor of mathematics at the University of Toronto.

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Note from the Editor

I had so much fun putting this edition of the newsletter together! Over the last few months, when I've run into members at various events I've asked them what they have been up to. As you can see from this edition of CJST News, our members have been up to a lot of exciting adventures. If you're planning a Japan-related trip and would like to write an article, or have any other ideas, please feel free to submit them.

AP

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