Tip #1 to begin preparations for a journey where the signposts are unfamiliar, where the new worlds you see reveal elements in yourself that you never knew existed.
“Looking into the employment ads, Daigo finds a promising offer [Departures Agent] at what sounds like a travel agency. Daigo applies at a quiet little office, the interview is brief. He gets the job and a cash advance. He discovers the agency handles travel, all right -- to the next world. It is an "encoffinment," or undertaking, business.” --Roger Ebert
From Wikipedia: a nōkanshi is a Japanese ritual mortician. Yukan is the ceremonial cleansing of the body prior to encoffenment. Japanese funerals are highly ritualized and generally conducted with Buddhist rites and involves a professional nōkanshi preparing dressing the dead in white.
10,000 People Japan Art Book Project 00,001 Chieko Iwase. Bill and I met Chieko-san at the Ginza Antique Market April 7, 2019. Outgoing, bright and authentic, beaming radiating warmth!
August 15, 2015 Yoshio, second from the right, arranged for me to visit with Master Swordsmith Gassan Sadatoshi, second from the left and featured in the documentary below. Sadatoshi-san, will one day, like his father, become a Japanese National Human Treasure, an unparalleled honor. His family has been making Samurai Swords for more than 800 years.
Our wedding rings were forged in a manner inspired by the making of traditional samurai swords. Folding red hot forged steel or gold, imparts a beautiful wood grain character to the sword or ring. Mokumeganea, the kanji Moku, means wood grain. Personally, moku mirrors the spirits of living trees who leave their mark in wood grain.
A closer examination of a forge folded samurai sword blade reveals the shabui of its red hot genesis (see below).
The noh drama,Sanjō Kokaji, features the 10th century swordsmith Munechika forging the tachi (samurai sword) Kogitsune-Maru with the fox spirit Inari-Myōjin, the god of rice, agriculture and fertility, whose messenger is a white fox masterfully wields a heavy hammer, sparks fly and cascade from the scend.
Kitsune.
I count at least 7 additional fox spirits witnessing the forging of this legendary sword.
Here is where Kitsune inspires a vision where I see a festival in Asuka and Sakurai City... and in Niimi.
The theme: “Swords are Not For Fighting.” Opens in Gassan’s studio. Two heavy hammer wielding assistants strike glowing steel in showers of sparks, Sadatoshi turns the billet in the age-kitae process, more sparks fly. Focus is on this forging and the preparation of the furnace, the shinto priests, the sparks flying symbolizing the festivals core, the spirit of the sword, like Inari-Myōjin and theKogitsune-Maru, the festival runs from opening to closing ceremony absent any sword fighting, without a single sword clash. Here the rules of life are:
harmony 調和, Chōwa
justice 正義感, Masayoshi-kan
honor 名誉, Meiyo
serenity
courage
tranquility
respect
courtesy
kindness
honesty
frugality
modesty
loyalty
and duty.
These together form the future of bushido where swords are not for fighting but represent the 12 faces of new legends, old kitsune, and the new Kogitsune-Maru’s that come from Gassan Sadatoshi’s studio.
In Asuka, student productions of the Kogitsune-Maru legend premiere in both noh and animation form with calligraphy classes producing banners in sets of three, like the sips of purifying sake that bring the gods and people together as a symbol of the vows we are making.
