Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden

Crown shyness is a phenomenon observed in some tree species, in which the crowns of fully stocked trees do not touch each other, forming a canopy with channel-like gaps. The phenomenon is most prevalent among trees of the same species, but also occurs between trees of different species.

This week's Cultural News reports that the New Yorker YouTube channel features "Flower Punk", a documentary about the acclaimed Japanese artist, Azuma Makoto.

Celebrate the Moon Festival this year with the Sino US Performing Arts Organization. They have created an amazing virtual celebration with great artists and performances of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Hawaiian, and American genres. Premieres October 3rd on YouTube, Vimeo, and Bilibili at 6:30 pm (PDT). Search "sinousarts" to watch the show on their channels for FREE! Come and enjoy the event with amazing artists and partners!

Saturdays You are invited to HAPPY HOUR IN THE GARDEN 4:30 - 6:30 p.m. Or come for the second session... TWILIGHT TO DARK 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Bring a bottle of wine (or whatever) and take this unique opportunity to enjoy an "Evening in the Garden". It will be too cold soon so register now for a beautiful way to spend a Saturday night. Attendance is limited for safe physical distancing. You must be registered and you can use the "Book Now" link on this page for either Saturday evening or a Sunday visit during the day.

Beginning in June, NAJGA (North American Japanese Garden Association) launched a series of virtual lectures we think you may be interested in. This month, Dr. Kendall Brown--who we were lucky enough to have as a board member helping us launch our non-profit--will collaborate with Steven Pitsenbarger on a lecture about the history of the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco. A description of the lecture is below and you can register for it on Zoom here: https://us02web.zoom.u...s//tZAtcuysrzkjHtAXpWLN1z48W2xIhx11o "The Evolution of a Story: Time and Technology in the History of the Japanese Tea Garden" In the 1990s Professor Kendall Brown studied the tangled history of the Japanese Tea Garden (JTG) in San Franciscothe oldest public Japanese garden in North America. His research led to the article "Rashômon: The Multiple Histories of the Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park." Decades later JTG Gardener, Steven Pitsenbarger, has continued this research. Steven has uncovered exciting pieces that add to this story using both traditional and new digital research methods. Join us on Thursday, August 27th to learn about the evolution of the JTG's history as well as research methods applicable to any garden. Professor Brown and Steven Pitsenbarger will discuss their research using many historical photos. They will also examine how understanding this garden's history contributes to it's operation today and, more broadly, how history contributes to sustaining gardens now. We'll begin the evening with a virtual cocktail hour from 4:30pm-5:00pm. Come and introduce yourself and get to know others in the Japanese garden community. The lecture will begin at 5:00 PM PDT. Then, we'll end with a Q & A with Professor Brown and Steven Pitsenbarger. Time Aug 27, 2020 04:30 PM PT Aug 27, 2020 04:30 PM in Pacific Time (US and Canada)

MEHER'S DAILY ART HUG: This week, Southern California is going through a heat wave, accompanied by multiple wildfires, some burning fairly close to Los Angeles.... Like everyone else, I can't stand the smoky air, but I am also concerned for the people and wild creatures threatened by the fire and in awe of the firefighters battling the flames in 100-degree heat. So, today I am sharing an image of coolness from the Scripps College collection to counter the heat - a print created by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) in the 1850s. This snowy landscape depicts the area known as Ocha-no-mizu (literally, "water for tea") on the banks of the Kanda River between the Shohei and Suido Bridges. The area is now a bustling business district, but in Hiroshige's time, it was still an area of natural beauty with wooded hills and picturesque rivers and an aqueduct for carrying the city's water supply. At the right, three figures walk through the snow wearing high geta and carrying umbrellas coated with snow. Below them on the Kanda River, two boatman wearing straw raincoats steer pleasure boats containing partying guests. In this and other images of Ocha-no-mizu, Hiroshige chose to depict the beauty spot in the middle of winter. He created the effect of snow by leaving areas of the image white, such as the falling snowflakes against the sky and water and the trees on the river back ,which are rendered as black skeletons surrounded by whiteness. This coming week, as I continue to unpack boxes and organize my living space, I plan to hold this image in my mind as a reminder of how it feels to be cool. See more

MEHER'S DAILY ART HUG: In the late 12th century, Japanese Zen Buddhist monks brought powdered green tea back from Chan temples in southeastern China, where the ...drink was used as a stimulant during meditation. In the following centuries, the drinking of powdered green tea evolved into what is generally known as the tea ceremony, or chanoyu. A crucial factor in this development was the vogue for karamono, or "things Chinese," including paintings and calligraphy by Chinese masters, bronze vases, lacquer cup stands and trays and ceramic vases, tea caddies and tea bowls. Probably the most important of all the karamono objects from this period were the dark, iron-glazed Jian ware tea bowls that became known as Temmoku in Japanese for the Tianmu mountain temple in China where they were used by monks to drink tea. Shiny and black with subtle patterning created by the iron oxide in the glaze, these bowls were not treasured in China, where pure white porcelain reigned supreme. In Japan they came to represent the spirit of tea, which had become deeply infused with the Zen qualities of simplicity, austerity and spontaneity. The simple black tea bowls eventually set the tone for the tea ceremony, which from the 16th century onwards, under the influence of several tea masters including the celebrated Sen Rikyu (1522-91), favored the simple, humble and austere over the refined, grand, ostentatious. This lovely example from the Met Museum features a lustrous black glaze with brown streaks that form a "hare's fur" pattern, one of the most admired types of Temmoku glazes. Three sips of tea from such a bowl would wake the mind but calm the soul. See more

A remarkable 2016 audio documentary with the voices of survivors recorded in 1995, most surely silent now.

MEHER'S DAILY ART HUG: I have been looking for Buddhist-themed works in the Scripps collection and came across this lovely print by the great Yoshitoshi (1839-9...2) depicting a Japanese princess whose story is a little like that of Cinderella, but with less romance and more praying! The young lady in the legend is the beautiful Princess Chujo, or Chujo-hime, who is said to have lived in the 8th century. Her mother died when she was three, and for much of her youth, she devoted herself to transcribing hundreds of Buddhist sutras in the hope of ensuring her mother's salvation. Her wicked stepmother was jealous of her filial devotion and treated her badly, but she was rescued by nuns from Taima-dera, or Taima Temple, in Nara. They offered her a home with them, and she too became a nun, going on to weave the famous Taima Mandala - an image of a Buddhist paradise - using threads from the stems of lotuses. The mandala is still housed at Taima-dera today and is one of Japan's National Treasures. In this print, Chujo-hime is shown arranging lotus blossoms in a jar - a reference to the lotus threads she used in her weaving - and has turned to face her nasty stepmother's spirit who appears in the form of a hissing serpent. The princess reacts calmly to creature, showing no fear since she has become an enlightened being, as suggested by the lotus leaf forming a halo around her head. Her story is a wonderful blend of Confucian ideals of filial loyalty and Buddhist devotion through prayer, writing and art. No fairy godmothers, pumpkins or glass slippers in this tale, but, like Cinderella, Chujo-hime does undergo a sort of transformation. Living a life devoted to loving acts grants her freedom from fear. See more

MEHER'S DAILY ART HUG: When I began my adventure into the world of contemporary origami art in 2010, master origami artist Robert J. Lang was my guide, explaini...ng some of the most important developments in the field, introducing me to many outstanding artists and helping me to find works for my 2012 exhibition Folding Paper. Ten years, six exhibitions and two books (one with Robert) later, I am filled with immense gratitude to Robert. An inspired artist, a brilliant scientist and an exceptional teacher, he is also a profoundly generous colleague, motivating me to learn more about origami, explore new types of exhibitions and present origami art in new ways. Though Robert is perhaps most famous for his super-complex animal models, he works in multiple styles of origami and experiments in a range of materials. In time for the Folding Paper exhibition, he created this tessellation called "3^7 Hyperbolic Limit" - a luminous origami mandala made with yellow glassine paper. Origami tessellations are some of the most elaborate origami works being created today, and are generally two-dimensional, though they can also be three-dimensional and can be used to created patterns within other three-dimensional forms. Most simply, a single sheet is folded to create a pattern of folded lines that fills a plane with no overlaps or gaps, like decorative wall tiles. They are often created using pleats to connect together elements such as twist folds in a repeating fashion. In this work, the pattern of heptagons surrounded by triangles could repeat infinitely if not for the limitations of the sheet of paper. I know next to nothing about the hyperbolic geometry referenced here, but I can't help feeling that, like this pattern, kindness and generosity can also repeat infinitely beyond the limits of our own awareness, potentially impacting others across the world. Thank you, Robert, for teaching me about origami, kindness and so much more! See more