Just had a very indulgent and varied birthday weekend beginning on Saturday with diva-ish backstage drama at our Shinjuku drag show where we performed in front of a twenty minute film we had made especially for the night – here is me five minutes before going on
…. I think it went ok although there were inevitable fuckups and regrets that brought the night down a little afterwards
The next day we realized that it was all much better than we had at first realized (: eau, les artistes !) and had a really lovely afternoon in Ueno Park, the more austere, spacious and fadedly elegant old part of Tokyo where we had lunch at the legendary BunkaKaikan museum cafe – hadn’t been there in years, and with all the yellowing ginkgo and zelkova trees reflected in gilded mirrors we spent a good couple of hours just sighing contentedly in semi-melancholic autumnal bliss.
I could quite happily have stayed there all afternoon it was so relaxing (plus walking has become rather painful indeed; all of this was a partial celebratory swansong) but I wanted to go to an exhibition – to just randomly choose one from the several imposing museums in the vicinity ): Monet was horrendously popular and I didn’t fancy old Japanese clay burial masks from millennia before ; we opted for a survey of birds at the Science Museum instead – a full selection of stuffed and preserved ornithology presented cleverly , although after a while with all the crowds and the overheating we were as birded out as Tippi Hedren.
Time for a stroll in the cold but lovely late autumnal fresh air.
We came across the Geidai Art School where I had never been before.
The museum cafe happened to be having a free mini concert of gagaku – ancient court music, still performed in the imperial household on special occasions – so we thought why not : perfect. We went inside.
The musicians were milling at the back of the shop. I couldn’t help approaching them , the scent of incense gradually flowing through the space so exquisite and penetrating – fresh, deeply dignified, and darkly spiced , this was not the hangover of smoke on fabric but smelled cold air fresh – and I simply had to enquire further.
Surprisingly accommodating and down to earth – with all their courtly regalia I suppose I had expected a more supercilious mien – one of the ladies graciously let me inhale the sleeves of her kimono : cloves, camphor, agarwood, cinnamon and unknown ephemera – it was profoundly sense-altering ; you could tell that the garments had been stored somewhere with sachets of incense ingredients in a wooden chest in a beautiful room somewhere and with the music – discordant to many ears with its strangely pitched flutes and koto and bagpipe-like instruments, but to us penetrating and cathartic – I could imagine the sounds echoing through the valleys and forests of Nara, the scent and music commingling in a way that felt transporting.
“It was like breathing “ D said afterwards.
This is a lovely post – serene and a feast for the eyes and imagination. Performance is always turbulent with extreme highs and lows, but I am glad that once the adrenaline wore off you realised that really it was OK (you look amazing).
I am very happy as I have managed to track down your book and it’s arriving today. I couldn’t afford the wild prices that are now being commanded as it is out of print, but have won a copy on a certain online auction site. My Christmas present to myself.
By the way, one’s birthday actually lasts a whole week, so carry on celebrating.
I think three days will have to suffice.
Thankyou for going out of your way to get hold of my ( now hopelessly out of date ) book
I hope it provides snippets of aesthetic pleasure nonetheless
Vintage Black Narcissus!
Many happy returns of the days o fragrant one!
I followed your happy wanderings and was there!
To be cherished in the archives forever.
Your presence is my present! Present indeed and not even my birthday!
Thank you N
This was a lovely present to me as well x
Your celebratory weekend looks & sounds incredible. Such self assessed lows (things are NEVER as bad as we think) and such highs to follow.
Those yellow trees & the fabrics of the Gagaku! The green silk box cover was entrancing
I am glad I was able to put some of that across
Happy birthday! Sounds like an overall success with all senses indulged and a wide spectrum of emotions to remind you you’re vital!
What a wonderful way of putting things. Thank you very much
Happy birthday! I absolutely love gagaku. It really sends me somewhere else. Gagaku as therapy. Is there a perfume you know of that could take me there, something like what you describe?
In truth I don’t think any perfume could send us to the same place – but sachets of hardcore Buddhist incense from one of the hallowed Kyoto o-koh houses probably could.
Yes. That music is piercing and strange – and you wouldn’t want it all day. But I agree – it’s very clarifying for the mind. Interesting, also that in Japan you are said to ‘listen’ to incense – so perhaps it is an intentional, doubling effect
How interesting – must get some proper o-koh. God knows my mind could do with clarifying. I have some Japanese incense but none really hardcore; I went for an old Indian one yesterday and it smelled like the ashtrays on the street outside my Tokyo subway station back in the day. I didn’t think incense went off but this one clearly had.
Experimenting with nioibukuro in recent times I have realized how lovely they can be – although the ones from the Kamakura shop are almost too Comme Des Garçons all-spice-ish with a bit too much cardamom and cinnamon. I liked the stark agarwood aspect of this scent. As I said, probably one of the proper classic Kyoto incense manufacturers like kungyokudo
They are such lovely little things. I wish I had bought more. Thanks for the kungyokudo recommendation. I’ve got some different ones arriving (Nippon Kodo); I hope to have any time to do a comparison. What I’m really after is something that smells like my mental image of backstage at butoh, with old fur coats coming out of cedar-lined wardrobes, a dab of bintsuke abura, greasepaint, lipstick, powder, ancient things.
divine
fantastic tranceportive music …