THE WHATS, WHYS, & WHEREFORES
Where are you going?
I’m going to Japan, to follow in the Haiku poet’s, Matsuo Basho’s, footsteps. In the spring and summer of 1689 (Elizabethan era in England!) Basho walked the roads of Japan’s Northern Interior, recording the essential nature of the people and places he encountered along the way. This resulted in a Japanese classic: 'Oku-no-hosomichi' ('Narrow Road to the Interior'). It was Basho’s necessary journey, a journey in physical, philosophical and ‘spiritual’ space and, indeed, a necessary journey for every human being. I will start in ‘Edo’ (present day Tokyo), where Basho started, then follow his footsteps north, turn west, then south, following Japan’s Western coast, finishing in Ogaki, where Basho also finished his journey (map att.). My journey, adapted to Necessary Journeys and the time available, will involve a combination of public transport (mostly train) and walking for sustained bursts in the mountains of Japan and along her western seaboard.
When are you coming and when do you return?
Leave around 21 September 2005, return around 24 October 2005
Why did you apply for a NJ travel bursary?
I’ve had this journey in mind for a long time and saw this as the vehicle to realise it
Why did you choose this particular trip?
What does it mean to you personally (ie family/history/politics)?
My personal engagement with Japan has been long and passionate, both personally and intellectually/philosophically. Alan Watts in the '70s turned me on to Zen and I have been a Zen practitioner ever since. I learnt spoken Japanese for 1½ years and, in the mid '80s, studied the Translation Of Scientific And Technical Japanese for 3 months at Sheffield University. I have some reading in Japanese literature, including such classics as 'The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon', several tomes about Japanese history, and, of course, innumerable Zen books. I have read and ruminated much on the Poetry of Zen and the Zen of Poetry. I addressed a conference of the Network of Buddhist Organisations on the theme of ‘Buddhism & Poetry’ in early June.
Zen has come to the West (or the West has come to Zen?): how does a 2,500 year old practice illuminate, interpret and intimate the centrifugal products of the Afrikan/European/Caribbean diaspora?
What does it mean to you artistically?
As a professional working artist one very rarely has the chance to take a deep breath … and slowly let it out. It’s always project/project/project or one is always seeking projects. I’m going to take in a long breath when I get to Japan, and very slowly let it out over a 3-4 week period
How will it help you creatively?
Everything is grist to the mill – but this is best quality organic high-fibre grist! A very different culture will, I’m sure, hit me where it amazes (and probably hurts) and, out of that crucible, new life, new directions and creativity is born
Why do you think this journey is necessary in developing your art?
Artists, writers are taking ‘necessary journeys’ all the time. This most exciting necessary journey is something I have wanted to do for a very long time. It will influence all my work and provide material for live performance, paper-based work, concrete sculptural work and feed into RESPRAY, my arts council (pilot) funded laptop-based poetry cut-up project. I trust that oku-no-hosomichi will provide me with ‘a step up’ onto the national stage.
Why is this physical place of particular artistic interest?
Contemporary Japan is a place of blatant contradictions. Creativity flows out of contradiction. Poetry is the art of using words to say things words cannot say. The Japanese are masters of the art. Or not … or not anymore – I’ll find out.
I’m going to Japan, to follow in the Haiku poet’s, Matsuo Basho’s, footsteps. In the spring and summer of 1689 (Elizabethan era in England!) Basho walked the roads of Japan’s Northern Interior, recording the essential nature of the people and places he encountered along the way. This resulted in a Japanese classic: 'Oku-no-hosomichi' ('Narrow Road to the Interior'). It was Basho’s necessary journey, a journey in physical, philosophical and ‘spiritual’ space and, indeed, a necessary journey for every human being. I will start in ‘Edo’ (present day Tokyo), where Basho started, then follow his footsteps north, turn west, then south, following Japan’s Western coast, finishing in Ogaki, where Basho also finished his journey (map att.). My journey, adapted to Necessary Journeys and the time available, will involve a combination of public transport (mostly train) and walking for sustained bursts in the mountains of Japan and along her western seaboard.
When are you coming and when do you return?
Leave around 21 September 2005, return around 24 October 2005
Why did you apply for a NJ travel bursary?
I’ve had this journey in mind for a long time and saw this as the vehicle to realise it
Why did you choose this particular trip?
What does it mean to you personally (ie family/history/politics)?
My personal engagement with Japan has been long and passionate, both personally and intellectually/philosophically. Alan Watts in the '70s turned me on to Zen and I have been a Zen practitioner ever since. I learnt spoken Japanese for 1½ years and, in the mid '80s, studied the Translation Of Scientific And Technical Japanese for 3 months at Sheffield University. I have some reading in Japanese literature, including such classics as 'The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon', several tomes about Japanese history, and, of course, innumerable Zen books. I have read and ruminated much on the Poetry of Zen and the Zen of Poetry. I addressed a conference of the Network of Buddhist Organisations on the theme of ‘Buddhism & Poetry’ in early June.
Zen has come to the West (or the West has come to Zen?): how does a 2,500 year old practice illuminate, interpret and intimate the centrifugal products of the Afrikan/European/Caribbean diaspora?
Under one roof, prostitute and priest,[Sora – Basho’s companion on his walk]
we all sleep together:
moon in a field of clover
What does it mean to you artistically?
As a professional working artist one very rarely has the chance to take a deep breath … and slowly let it out. It’s always project/project/project or one is always seeking projects. I’m going to take in a long breath when I get to Japan, and very slowly let it out over a 3-4 week period
How will it help you creatively?
Everything is grist to the mill – but this is best quality organic high-fibre grist! A very different culture will, I’m sure, hit me where it amazes (and probably hurts) and, out of that crucible, new life, new directions and creativity is born
Why do you think this journey is necessary in developing your art?
Artists, writers are taking ‘necessary journeys’ all the time. This most exciting necessary journey is something I have wanted to do for a very long time. It will influence all my work and provide material for live performance, paper-based work, concrete sculptural work and feed into RESPRAY, my arts council (pilot) funded laptop-based poetry cut-up project. I trust that oku-no-hosomichi will provide me with ‘a step up’ onto the national stage.
Why is this physical place of particular artistic interest?
Contemporary Japan is a place of blatant contradictions. Creativity flows out of contradiction. Poetry is the art of using words to say things words cannot say. The Japanese are masters of the art. Or not … or not anymore – I’ll find out.
What do you expect to achieve at the end of it – in terms of work, and in terms of experience?
My expected output/report-back will be:
- a travelogue of my necessary journey in verse, prose and image for new and ‘old’ media (I am not ‘a Haiku poet’, though some of my work is minimal verse/text). For paper, the web, digital media and radio
- material for a poetry film
- new material to incorporate into all of my artistic practice, in particular RESPRAY, my on-going laptop-based poetry cut-up project
Experience: to find out if the snake’s got any legs and why we insist on pushing the river.
What medium will you be working in?
Words on paper, words in cyberspace, words in the air (ie live performance), words and images on film
Will you be doing a blog/diary which we can use for PR purposes – ie documenting the process?
Yes
Can you send pics and written pieces along the way?
I presume so – except on the mountain stages when I am actually hiking.
posted by waveringbats at 8/17/2005 10:41:00 am
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