Yesterday old and new friends were entertained by a very old makura or “pillow story” to set the stage for the week. Under the Cherry Blossom Tree, a favorite ancient rakugo, or “joke tale” about a grumpy old man who ends up turning inside out and into a fish pond! Color groups sampled 6 different artists’ studios and campers and counselors alike spent the day getting to know each other.
Today, we heard the first of four chapters of Kaguya-hime, a mukashi banashi (very old story) about a mysterious baby girl discovered inside the stalk of a glowing bamboo plant . . . the murasaki (purple) group lead the Grace Art Camp Son, we ate kakamochi for snack, and the community started to learn to make orizuru (origami cranes)!
Campers had their first day of choosing from 10 different studios that included sushi plates, bamboo glass vases, bamboo clay vases, silk screened noren (Japanese doorway curtains), cherry blossom printing, paper fish, an upbeat Hokkaido fishing dance, kemari (the original Japanese version of the hacky sack), Japanese style wrapped stones, animated ikebana, handmade bun- raku inspired laundry puppets, and shibori-indigo t-shirts!
Please check out the daily blog posts (we try our best to do this daily but are sometimes a day behind or so) to view photos and a few tidbits about camp.