Session 34—Wed, Nov 16: "Rikyu" screening of first portion and Berkeley Art Museum visit

Topics

❖ Museum visit / film on Rikyū's life

Thoughts—read before class, revisit for tests

Attendance splits on this day. See the link on the course outline for this day to find out which group you are in.

One half of the class goes to the museum —

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
(2625 Durant Avenue) visit

The other half of the class goes to the regular classroom —

Screening of the 1989 film "Rikyu" (imdb) (This movie is available through the East Asian Library's Media Center as a 1 day loan: PN1997 .R557 2000 DVD)

Museum details:

First twenty to signup are eligible to attend.

We gather at the Durant lobby at regular class time; it is right around the corner from the conference room where we'll meet for the class. The usual museum-type rules apply: no food or drink and only pencils may be used if you want to take notes. If it is raining, your backpacks and such might be placed in a room separate from the viewing room. It should be relatively safe, but it is not a guarded room.

We'll be looking at a few paintings with tea references (making tea, the tea whisk vendor) and works resized for the tokonoma; some woodblock prints with tea-making in them; and some Chinese and Japanese ceramics, mostly teapots (Tang/Song) for China, mostly teabowls for Japan.

Film details:

(Bio from imdb:) "Hiroshi Teshigahara was born as the son of Sofu Teshigahara who was the founder of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana (Flower arrengement). In 1950, he was graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in oil painting. In 1958, he became the director of Sogetsu Art Center and took a leading role in avant-garde activities in all fields of art. Since 1980, acting as movie director, he has been the Iemoto (Headmaster) of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana."

Teshigahara focused on documentaries and films rich in biography. However, he was the director of a very large number of films including the award-winning 1965 film Woman of the Dunes and The Face of Another.

Plot in detail at: http://www.vernonjohns.org/snuffy1186/rikyu_1989.html

This movie won the Silver Lion award at the 1989 Venice International Film Festival.

Historical details are very good.

Required—to be completed for today's session

✓ Nothing, except read the above instructions.

Multimedia notes

❖ None.

Links

⇢ See above, under the film details.

Other

None.

Links to each session page