Wednesday Reads: “I weave freely today, as always.”

Weaving on a Loom by Utamaro Kitagawa (1753-1806)

Good Morning…

I am excited. Today a FedEx truck will come up my driveway bringing a 15 pound box that found its way from Japan to Louisiana to Memphis to Banjoville. Inside that box is a chrome Piccolo Saori Loom that I have been slowly making layaway payments towards since Thanksgiving.

It is a little loom but it has super big possibilities…

You may remember my big Glimakra countermarche loom is broken down and packed away in storage.

Ugh, all over “away in storage.”  The loom is too big anyway to fit in the house we are living in now, so this baby should be perfect.

Anyway, let me quickly give you some links that explain what the Saori weaving philosophy is all about and how this creative form “self-innovation though free weaving” got started…

In the introduction of her book, “Saori: Innovation through free weaving” Misao Jo quotes a Haiku written by Eihei Dōgen,  a Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher who founded the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan.

Under the moonlit sky,

people enjoy dancing,

casting shadows of different shapes.

Misao goes on to say that the haiku:

…implies that once born in the world, we are destined to live different lives.

She grew up following others and had become one of the majority. It was not until it finally hit her and she:

…became aware of the importance of developing a path of my own. I crawled up against a stream and found a beautiful flower garden unfolded before me. In that flower garden I learned that kansei* is inherent in everyone.

kansei*– Misao Jo use of word “meant the significance of an intuitive sense of beauty existing inside of us.”

What is SAORI ?

“SA” of SAORI has the same meaning as the first syllable of the word “SAI” which is found in Zen vocabulary.  It means everything has its own individual dignity.  And the “ORI” means weaving.

All flowers are beautiful, even though each individual flower is different in form and color.  Because of this difference, “all are good”.  Because everything has the same life, life cannot be measured by a yardstick.  It is this individuality that makes everything meaningful and the uniqueness of each thread that creates the tapestry of life.

                                                                                                         Misao Jo, Founder of SAORI

SAORI – How it sarted

SAORI – Our Mission

SAORI – Our History

So…that should give you enough information on this new path I am starting on. If you would like to see some pictures of woven Saori, look here:

http://www.freedomweavers.com

http://www.loopoftheloom.com

Saori Worcester, USA

http://www.saorisantacruz.com

from Saori Bridges of Elm Park by brockney52 on Flickr via pinterest

http://www.saorisantacruz.com

http://www.loopoftheloom.com

The translation of Teika (Shui guso, XI:335) is taken from Robert H. Brewer and Earl Miner, Japanese Court Poetry, p. 15. Click image to go to copy of book…

More images here: Weaving Saori and Around the World Weaving on Pinterest

Okay, the rest of today’s post will be your usual newsy stuff…after the jump of course. Oh, and the pictures, woodblock, painting you see are various Japanese artwork featuring weaving or spinning.  (That includes the tattooed women! Tattooing among Japan’s Ainu people .)

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