Yesterday as I was packing stuff, and the memories of the Chinese tea cups and embroidered silk cloth of the dragon floated into my thoughts and how they had come into the possession of myself. I thought how it must have been like to travel to an exotic country like China in the 19th Century.
Then I remembered our visit to the town of Bietigheim-Bissingen in Germany several years ago when Paul took back six scrolls he had conserved. They had been in the studio for years ready to go but the museum had never called for them back and then suddenly they wanted to make a ceremony of bringing them back to the town.
So one cold January day we flew to Germany in the midst of snow with two large suitcases with the scrolls inside. We arrived about midnight, Paul was fussing about the key lock we would find at the hotel, would it work? Then we found that the suitcases would not go in any of the taxis, until one man eventually managed it.
We were treated so kindly by the people of the town, the Mayor introduced to his ideas for what he wanted, we had people take us round and in those few days saw a lot. But in the museum I came across the man who had collected those scrolls, he had been the physician to the Japanese Emperor at the time - Erwin Balz 1849-1913
One of the photos in the museum captures Erwin riding in a cart and the photos reveal a Japan totally different from today's modern world.
Ceremony is part of Japanese culture, the unrolling of a scroll, perhaps for winter or spring is traditional. I have found most of these scrolls scary, if not ugly of the gods, but it is perhaps because I love landscape and not portraiture.
This Japanese garden is perhaps a place of remembrance, in one photo I have the green of the bamboo shines out against the black and white image of the snow and rocks.
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| It was very cold |
you conjure up some lovely images here as you describe this - lovely memories for you too Thelma.
ReplyDeleteYes packing does provoke memories. One other, is that the dark blonde, blue eyes of my two granddaughters must be due to the Dutch genes in the family.
DeleteThings are becoming more and more the same everywhere. It's interesting looking at the photographs of other countries in a set of Arthur Mee's Children's Encyclopedia we have (1928) when things were very different.
ReplyDeleteThe cynical question must be asked are we going through a 'civilised' phase or is everything melding into a miserable 'Westernised' version of modern living.
DeleteYes. How wonderful it must have been to travel to faraway places before they were tainted by European "civilisation". I hope you were wearing your thermal underwear that day Thelma!
ReplyDeleteNo thermal underwear sadly and we lost the car in the snow at Stansted airport as well. All the hundreds of cars covered in snow and us plodding through trying to find ours.
ReplyDeleteOld photos and old family movies help trigger many wonderful, almost forgotten, memories. They are usually records of the happy moments in our lives. Special events, family vacations - I don't think I would recall as much of my past without them.
ReplyDeleteYes Ellen and I suppose the record should be put into some sort of shape for the family story.
DeleteI've been reading your posts as they appear, but hadn't gotten around to commenting, so will put my thoughts in this one place. The business of sorting, discarding, packing for a move is always difficult and exhausting and has to be especially so when one must move on alone. Going through photos is especially emotional; my daughter shared an 'album' today on Face Book--such a rush of memories. I know that parting with a piece of furniture or a box of china may make good sense, but it all leaves one hanging between the comfortably familiar and the as yet unknown. Courage and stamina needed!
ReplyDeleteRe the delivery of the restored scrolls: a late friend was known for his ability to restore vintage Lincoln motor cars. He was tasked with the overhaul and fine tuning of a motor which was to be shipped to Japan, the owner being the CEO of Bridgestone Tires. My friend and his wife were given plane tickets to Japan and he was provided a white coat to participate in a ceremonial installation of the motor into the vintage vehicle. All very formal.
Hi Sharon, yes you are right choosing can be so difficult. The top surfaces in the kitchen are covered with stuff what to keep and what to go. The one thing we learn that our lives are transient, what do we keep, what do we throw, do our grandchildren really need this?
DeleteAlso with the Japanese the exchange of business cards are very important, sometimes their good manners would be good in other countries.
You have a very Cosmopolitan family tree Thelma - it would make fascinating research. Mine are all UK Ag. Labs. and any story they had to tell is very much a domestic one (apart from the two who were sailors at Trafalgar - one HMS Victory.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fascinating life Erwin Balz had. A real tribute to Paul's talents that he had such an important part to play in the restoration of those scrolls, and then their presentation at the Museum. By gum, it looked cold outside though!
Yes Jennie, only just found out that my grandfather was Belgium, and that his story of fleeing to Britain during the war makes him an immigrant at the time. Hunting for birth certificates on one of those Ancestry sites proved this. My granddaughters love 'hunting family' through the archives whereas I don't. But ancestry proves that we are all very mixed and it gives me pleasure that they have a European background. Which of course as you know Britain as had from the very beginning.
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