Luce Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment
Dr. Zhuang Kelin, a post-doctoral fellow supported by the Luce grant, is soon to come to Dickinson College to teach about paleoclimatology, including climate change and river systems in China. Professor Zhuang is from Qingdao and has a PhD from Texas A&M. He will be teaching ERSC311-01 Paleoclimatology of East Asia as a one-time only course in the Fall of 2013. The course is interdisciplinary and has no prerequisites.
Luce Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment
Recent renovations to the Stern Center basement have left students with a beautiful, Japanese style lounge. The lounge features elements of feng shui, and contains tatami floor mats, an elevated seating platform, a stone fountain, the game GO!, and an expansive six panel painted screen, depicting an old Japanese tale.
Luce Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment
On April 20th, a group of Dickinson students will travel to a regional bonsai festival held in Grantville, PA. The festival, known as the Mid-Atlantic Bonsai festival, will give students and festival-goers the opportunity to observe an extensive array of professional bonsai trees as well as attending lectures and discussions by experts. For interested parties, the festival spans April 19th to the 21st at the Holiday Inn Harrisburg-Hershey.
Luce Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment
Recent renovations to the Stern basement have found this screen enjoying new celebrity as the centerpiece of the new Japanese lounge. Complete with grass mats and a stone fountain, this space new space exhibits this beautiful piece in feng shui alignment.
From “New Lives for Asian Images,” by Professors David Strand and Samuel K. Parker:
Court ladies in colorful kimonos are shown enjoying an outing in early spring. According to Professor Alex Bates, this screen, in Yamato-e style, is a copy of the Sumiyoshi monogatari emaki, a Kamakura period picture scroll. The upper half of the painting, including gold cloud formations, was added by the artist to extend the vertical dimension in a manner appropriate to a screen. The original scroll tells the story of a young girl, Himegimi, whose stepmother threatens her marriage prospects. In the scenes depicted here, Himegimi and her entourage are picking young pines in a ritual celebrating spring. An aristocrat of the Shosho rank discovers Himegimi’s beauty despite the efforts of the step-mother to hide her away. As he spies upon Himegimi (from the lower left of the panel), the young man composes a poem:
The spring mists,
veiled the moor,
Yet I went out
and glimpsed this day
the young green of the pine
The Shosho alludes to the difficulty of seeing Himegimi and compares the beauty of the maiden to that of the young pines. Nature imagery conveys meaning in a fashion characteristic of classical Japanese poetry. The placement of male and female figures creates a strong impression of gendered space and emphasizes the transgressive nature of the Shosho’s gaze.
The size and design of his screen suggests that it was once owned by a wealthy Edo merchant. Incoking an aristocratic culture pre-dating samurai rule, the artist and his patron celebrate an ancient, golden age of taste and refinement imagined to outshine the Tokugawa present.
Luce Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment
Turns of the Wheel/Strokes of the Brush: Landscapes and Cityscapes
In a Changing Chinese Environment: The Jingdezhen Vase Project
In her much-praised The Vase Project Professor Diduk asked one hundred local Jingdezhen artists to each paint one white porcelain vase. Each artist was given a blank vase and asked to respond to the preceding artist painter’s vase. They were asked to interpret the vase imagery, incorporating their own individual painting styles in the pieces, but not to copy it, since mimetic copying is the usual painting method practiced. The first painter in the Project responded to a small drawing that incorporated kiln stacks along with the always familiar historical landscape image. In this case the inclusion of manufacturing was intended to reflect the current contemporary scenic landscape in Jingdezhen today. Taken as a kind of ceramic quilt or kaleidoscope, the vases help viewers see what the city was like before and during modern industrialization and the process whereby artists shifted their attention from imperial and scholar-elite or merchant patrons as customers to hotel chains in need of crockery, foreign tourists in search of China’s past, and Chinese consumers trying to keep up-to-date in a rapidly changing material culture. As her collaborative project demonstrates the ongoing evolution of the city in its environmental policies (switching from coal-fired to propone kilns for example) proves, there is a forward-leaning outlook among Jingdezhen artists, activists and ordinary residents even as the community struggles to preserve Jingdezhen’s artistic legacies. The city that produced The Vase Project is in the throes of transitioning from a rugged, dirty, small manufacturing center consisting of workshops and smallish factories, into up-to-date manufacturing facilities and a center of modern ceramic art. The waning of ceramic making traditions in Jingdezhen is best understood both in global context (this is not the first time that craft traditions have been reshaped by new markets, technologies and artistic sensibilities and health and environmental concerns) and the local realities that contribute to such powerful turns of history in unique, culturally colored and inflected forms.
In the summer of 2015, a group of students will travel to Jingdezhen on a study-trip, which will provide even more critical insight into the culture surrounding ceramics in Jingdezhen.
Luce Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment
Bonsai is a Japanese art form using miniature trees grown in containers. Contrary to popular thought, Bonsai is not kept miniature by any kind of genetic manipulation; in fact, it is cultivated using a combination of art and science.
Despite its attribution as a Japanese art form, Bonsai originated in China about 2000 years ago. In China, the tradition of Bonsai remains under the title of pun-sai. Pun-sai began as the practice of single species tree cultivation in pots. Over the last thousand or so years, Japan has, however, contributed greatly to the refinement of the art of Bonsai, which is why it is often credited with its inception. It is not even exclusive to these two countries; Vietnam maintains a similar tradition by the name of hòn non bộ.
Bonsai is a combination of the words “bons,” meaning shallow pan, and “sai” meaning plant. Bonsai can be translated as “tray planting.”
Bonsai is cultivated and miniaturized by pruning new growth and roots as well as by wiring the branches for shape. It is also kept small by frequent repotting; a tree in a pot will grow much slower than in the ground.
It is a quiet art, and a slow one as well. Bonsai is cultivated and admired contemplatively, for both the artist and viewer.
Want to see the photos of the Dickinson bonsai project? Click here!
Image by: Twicepix
Luce Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment
“Ikebana” is from the Japanese ikeru (生ける?, “keep alive, arrange flowers, living”) and hana (花?, “flower”). Possible translations include “giving life to flowers” and “arranging flowers”.[1]
More than simply putting flowers in a container, ikebana is a disciplined art form in which nature and humanity are brought together. Contrary to the idea of floral arrangement as a collection of particolored or multicolored arrangement of blooms, ikebana often emphasizes other areas of the plant, such as its stems and leaves, and draws emphasis toward shape, line, form. Though ikebana is a creative expression, it has certain rules governing its form. The artist’s intention behind each arrangement is shown through a piece’s color combinations, natural shapes, graceful lines, and the usually implied meaning of the arrangement.
Another aspect present in ikebana is its employment of minimalism. That is, an arrangement may consist of only a minimal number of blooms interspersed among stalks and leaves. The structure of a Japanese flower arrangement is based on a scalene triangle delineated by three main points, usually twigs, considered in some schools to symbolize heaven, earth, and man and in others sun, moon, and earth. The container is a key element of the composition, and various styles of pottery may be used in their construction.
The spiritual aspect of ikebana is considered very important to its practitioners. Silence is a must during practices of ikebana. It is a time to appreciate things in nature that people often overlook because of their busy lives. One becomes more patient and tolerant of differences, not only in nature, but also in general. Ikebana can inspire one to identify with beauty in all art forms. This is also the time when one feels closeness to nature which provides relaxation for the mind, body, and soul.
Photo by: dalbera
Luce Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment
Seismic Japan is a summer study group examining the history, culture and science of earthquakes in Japan. This course is intended to provide students with an in-depth understanding of the science and culture of earthquake in Japan, one of the most earthquake prone countries in the world. Through lectures, class discussions, field-trips, student exchanges, meetings with scientists, students will come to appreciate the complex history of human interaction with the destructive forces of the earth in Japan. We hope this will encourage interdisciplinary interaction and allow students outside the department to experience Japan. In the long term, we hope this will make Japan more visible on campus, especially in the sciences. We will have field trips to various sites to observe the geology and the devastating impacts of seismicity, do labs to understand the science behind earthquakes, read fiction that was inspired by earthquakes and more.
Seismic Japan is overseen by Professors Alex Bates and Peter Sak
Alex Bates is an assistant professor at Dickinson College specializing in modern Japanese literature and film. He graduated with his BA from Brigham Young University and has a PhD from the University of Michigan. Professor Bates is currently revising a book manuscript focused on how authors and filmmakers represented the 1923 earthquake that destroyed Tokyo.
Peter Sak received a BA in Geology from Whitman College (Walla Walla, WA) where he conducted research in southern Ontario and the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan. After graduating, he worked for the USGS (Water Resources Division) and as a consulting geologist in Seattle, WA before completing his graduate studies at Penn State University. His PhD research focused on the tectonic and landscape evolution of the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Currently Sak is an associate professor and chair of the Earth Sciences Department at Dickinson College. He has diverse research interests spanning from low temperature aqueous geochemistry, to classical structural geology, to landscape evolution. Recently, Sak sailed as a sedimentologist on IODP expedition 334 (offshore of Costa Rica) where he quantified rates of subduction erosion inboard of the sub ducting Cocos Ridge. He is a past councilor of the Council for Undergraduate Research Geoscience Division and a member of the U.S. Advisory Committee for Ocean Drilling. He has active research projects in Pennsylvania, Colorado, Costa Rica, and Guadeloupe.
Luce Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment
Andy Moore gave a private colloquium on the 26th of February to a group of professors involved in our new Seismic Japan program. On Wednesday February 27 at 4:30 in Denny 317, he gave a public lecture on the same topic. He discussed Japan’s history with earthquakes and tsunamis as well as their resilience to natural disasters.
Members of the colloquium are currently reading selections from Gregory Clancey’s Earthquake Nation.
Featured Image: 2011 Japan earthquake aftermath.
If you missed the lecture, here’s what happened:
The lecture centered on tsunami preparedness and how the enormous preparations still allowed the deaths that occurred. The lecture did so by examining such cities as Arahama, Taro, and Sendai. One of his major points was that the coastline was actually quite prepared for a natural disaster, but perhaps the wrong one. He spoke extensively on Japan’s preparation for a tsunami similar to that of 1960 despite the widely known fact that much larger tsunamis had hit Japan in the past. Why didn’t they prepare for the largest tsunami they knew was possible? Smaller topics discussed were sea walls and their effectiveness, coastal forest barriers, and cultural faith in engineering.
Andy Moore is a sedimentologist currently teaching at Earlham College in Indiana. He obtained his undergraduate degree in geology from Carlton College where he filled his distribution requirements primarily with courses pertaining to Japanese culture. He obtained his masters degree and PhD from the University of Washington, where he worked with geologist and tsunami expert Brian Atwater. After years of sedimentology and tsunami research, he turned his focus to cultural perceptions of natural disasters and now wishes to understand the human side of disaster readiness.
At the colloquium: topics discussed included Japanese tsunami history, geological causes of the 2011 tsunami, engineering preparations, and extra-cultural analogues (like the Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina). A handful of professors, all experts in their fields, discussed these topics over dinner. The preparatory readings were Gregory Clancey’s “Earthquake Nation” and a chapter about the Korean panic from Dickinson Professor Alex Bates’ book in progress.
Post Image: Gregory Clancey, Earthquake Nation, cover.
Photo Credit: Aurora Wetherill
Want more information on our Seismic Japan program? Visit our Seismic Japan page!
Luce Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment
Dickinson College has recently constructed the new Stafford Green House attached to Kauffman Hall, in which there are now bonsai plants. On February 28th, the Stafford Greenhouse made its debut with a bonsai class. Jim Doyle, a local bonsai expert, taught Professor Tom Arnold’s plant physiology class and Professor Bates’ class on nature and the environment in Japanese literature and film about the noble bonsai. The students learned the basics of bonsai by working firsthand with young junipers. Jim also brought other more mature bonsai plants for educational purposes. He showed the students what can happen with long-term commitment to this beautiful and meditative art. The Luce Initiavtive on Asian Studies and the Environment grant provided the funding for Jim Doyle’s time, making it a joint effort between the Stafford Greenhouse and the Luce Initiative.
Jim Doyle, our local bonsai expert, runs Nature’s Way Nursery in Harrisburg and is a highly sought after bonsai teacher.
As the event has passed, here are some highlights and photos!
Jim Doyle, a local horticulturist, came to Dickinson College to share his love of bonsai with a lucky group of plant physiology students. He brought 15 small juniper trees, each about 6 years old. He began the lesson by explaining that he originally wanted to be a veterinarian, but began work at a plant nursery while in college and fell in love with horticulture, and eventually bonsai. He describes bonsai as a continual adventure.
What makes a good bonsai?
Jim says that rounded apexes, a short distance between the branches, and small foliage are the keys to a good bonsai.
Looking for more information on bonsai? Visit our bonsai page!
Photo Credit: Aurora Wetherill and Tom Arnold.