On July 27, 2024, a group of 30 attended the Japanese Summer Festival at the Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford, IL. This outing was sponsored by the Antiracism Taskforce of the Northern Illinois Conference (NIC) of the United Methodist Church, as part of their NIC Presents Series now in its third year and focused, this year, on Art and Culture from diverse traditions. (See details and links below.)
The Video below shows a few moments from the festival and from a special luncheon the UMC group attended. First up are the taiko drummers from the cultural program led by Tatsu Aoki. Then comes Candy Man, a street performer. Between hijinks which delighted the audiences, he makes intricate candy figures, here blind folded. There’s a big brush painting demonstration, followed by the luncheon. Ellie Jun made most of the delicious food the group enjoyed, and while eating they heard two presentations. Linda-Bonifas Guzman spoke about the profound influence Japanese culture and design had on America’s most famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. The Laurent House, just a few miles from the Gardens, is a partner organization. Designed by Wright in his Usonian style, it was built for a person with disabilities and owes much to Japanese culture. Then Donna Sagami spoke about Japanese culture in general and about her family’s story in particular: the hardships of immigrating to a new land and devising ways to make a living; the growing anti-Asian prejudice, culminating in the Internment Camps of World War II. The orders to move to the camps came so quickly that Japanese families scrambled to settle their homes, businesses, and lands. One set of relatives asked a white neighbor if he would buy their land but promise to sell it back if they returned. Actually wanting to help, he said Yes. Meanwhile, while their families struggled to survive the camps, many Japanese men joined the armed forces and fought and died for the USA. “There’s a village in France that holds a memorial service every year for US soldiers who died liberating them. One of them was a relative of mine,” said Sagami.
The Video ends by returning to the festival for a dance from the Awa Odori troupe.
The Anderson Japanese Gardens is considered one of the finest Japanese Gardens in the world. Designed by famed landscape architect Hoichi Kurisu, construction began in 1978, and, says the Anderson Japanese Gardens website, “From groundbreaking to today, the placement of every rock, alignment of every tree, and layout of all paths have been made with careful consideration by Mr. Kurisu.”
It’s a beautiful place for a festival—even though the throngs of people, the vendors, the sounds of drums and flutes and kotos, and all the hub bub of the day did take something away from some of the Japanese Garden experience: peace and space. This NIC Presents event was led by Jenny Graham, member of the NIC presents committee, and a graphic designer whose work is amply represented in the committee’s programs and throughout the NIC website. She’s a Rockford resident and has seen the garden in more peaceful times.
I’m not taking anything away from the wonderful festival. But you never reveal something—like the wide display of important aspects of Japanese culture—without covering up something else. Central to the concept of Japanese culture and design is MA, a character you see at left. (The composition of the character—moon lying below and in between the character for gate—evokes images of light traveling through the cracks of a doorway.) It means “empty” or “negative” space. It means the silence, the rest, a space in between things, like the soundless space between notes of music. In creating absence, it brings possibility and meaning to what is present. Perhaps it is like the Void out of which all creation came and where the spark of creativity resides, shining a light through the gate between presence and emptiness. When we really do take a breath and pause to feel the power of emptiness, we are in the space of MA. We feel its peace, and a Japanese garden is so beautiful because of this peace. It’s meticulously arranged to balance the presence of plants, water, stone, and colorful koi, with the emptiness, the MA, we usually crowd out of our busy lives. The Anderson Japanese Gardens is a place to return to over and over to experience this balance.
♦ For more details on the NIC Presents Series go to: Art and Culture Series (2024), Film Series (2023), Speakers Series (2022). For the first event of the Film Series I did an introductory talk at the Illinois Holocaust Museum on racism and images of blacks in films. Watch this Here or on the Film Series link above. For the final event of the Speakers Series I interviewed Chabon Kernell, executive director of the Native American Comprehensive Plan of the United Methodist Church. Watch this live-streamed interview at the Speakers Series link above.