Sep 25, 2009

Thoughts on gomei, or poetic names

Students who practice Chanoyu are asked by their teachers to think of gomei or poetic names for tea utensils. Many students think it is a chore or silly to come up with names for your chashaku every week. But during the haiken, or the appreciation part of the ceremony, the gomei can heighten the drama, tell the story of the utensil or enhance the theme of the tea gathering.

Gomei, literally, most honoured name, are given to utensils, sweets, and other things related to Tea. Originally, names were given to various objects by great connoisseurs and Tea masters in the late Higashiyama period. Kobori Enshu gave many famous tea utensils gomei taken from poetry and literature.

Tea utensils may reflect nature by echoing particular seasons both in form and with their poetic names. In observing the seasons, there are many more than the basic 4: spring, summer, fall, and winter. For example, early spring is more like winter and late spring is more like summer. Flowers are a great indication of the season as they don't appear at once, but can evoke the time of year that they bloom. So noticing what particular flowers are in bloom are a good source of gomei. Also instead of just naming a flower, a good gomei may offer a description of the flower. For example, Kiku or chrysanthemum is a good autumn flower, but to use kiku as a gomei is a little general and not very poetic. If it is late November, the chrysanthemums are getting a little tired as their blooming season is coming to an end. So "rangiku" or ragged chrysanthemum might be a gomei for that season.

Gomei can also come from place names that evoke different feelings, seasons or memories. For example, the gomei "Tatsuta" refers to the Tatsuta river in Nara prefecture. In the fall this river fills with fallen red maple leaves and thus alludes to the momiji or red maple leaves of autmn. Likewise, Yoshino is a place where the hill sides bloom with cherry blossoms in the spring. With these place names, one can allude to the seasons without directly saying "cherry blossoms." It gives a little more sophisticaton, depth and feeling to the name.

For usucha and okashi (sweets) gomei can be very seasonal and light; sometimes they can be humorous, or emotional such as "chajo chashin" tea feeling, tea heart. When we get to koicha, however, the gomei are a little more serious. Many Zen words and phrases are used as gomei. For example, I have a scroll with a Zen phrase that says: White clouds come and go as they please. I might pair this scroll with a tea scoop name "Ao yama" or green mountain because the companion phrase to this is: Green mountain is unmovable.

Japanese literature is also a rich source of gomei. An example of this might be "Murasame" literally it means autumn rain. Murasame was also one of two sisters in the in the Noh play Matsukaze. The two main characters are the sisters Matsukaze and Murasame who once lived on the Bay of Suma in Settsu Province where they ladled brine in order to make salt. A Middle Counsellor named Yukihira dallied with them while staying at Suma for three years. Shortly after his departure, word of his death came and they died of grief. They linger on as spirits or ghosts, attached to the mortal world by their sinful emotional attachment to mortal desires. The name of the chief character, and title of the play, Matsukaze, bears a poetic double meaning. Though Matsu can mean "pine tree" (松), it can also mean "to wait" or "to pine" (待つ). Autumn Rain is strong and gentle intermittently, while the Wind in the Pines is soft and constant. Though the characters in the play actually represent the opposite traits - Matsukaze alternating between strong emotional outburts and gentle quietness while her sister remains largely in the background, and acts as a mediating influence upon Matsukaze. Many layers of meaning here: Autumn, love, tears, grief, desire, strong, gentle depending on how it is used.

So please think about your gomei for keiko next week and use your imagination and some of these suggestions. It will make your temae more interesting to both your teacher and your guests.

8 comments:

  1. These are enlightening thoughts. I have never considered choosing gomei as silly or a chore, but rather daunting. As a born procastinator I usually leave it to the last minute. Your essay has inspired me to be more diligent. As a student of Japanese language and Chado, I really appreciate your explanations and examples.
    Thank you.

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  2. Dear Anonymous, thank you for your comment. I just finished with a chakai and everyone was so anxious to hear the poetic name for the chashaku. It was given to me by my sensei, who passed away 7 years ago this month. The name she gave it was "michi" the path or the way. So appropriate for a teacher to give to a student.
    Thank you.

    Margie

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  3. Thank you so much for this entry. It's tremendously helpful, especially your observations about more subtle/sophisticated allusions to the season. I will definitely try that in future.

    I have a couple of follow-up questions, if that's OK:

    - I always find it challenging to come up with gomei for koicha. I'm not a Zen Buddhist and only know 2 or 3 terms that are acceptable to use as gomei. And while it's not hard to find kigo, Zen-related gomei are a very different matter! So please, can you kindly suggest a source for koicha gomei?

    - How do you personally like to strike the balance between local seasonality and conventional (Kyoto-based) seasonality? And do you ever introduce local, non-traditional elements? I was inspired by the Alaska saijiki ("first mosquito") to pay more attention to natural phenomena hereabouts and one year I tried out a gomei called "first robin" (because the robins had begun migrating northward and had appeared in the mountain ash trees en masse, as they do, exactly in mid-January). It was not a big success, perhaps because there is no Japanese precedent for such a thing, perhaps because it's preferable to learn and master the traditional responses before going further afield. But it left me wondering whether (or to what degree) it's acceptable to reflect in the tearoom what's happening seasonally in one's own part of the world. (Camas blossoms in the chabana in April?)

    Thank you!

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    1. Dear Anonymous,
      Thank you for your comments. Yes, Zen gomei are difficult. I am not a Zen Buddhist either. What I tell my students is to think of the scrolls that they are familiar with. Of course wa, kei, sei, jaku are good Zen gomei, and in comblination of wakei, for example, as harmony and respect. Matsu kaze, seifu, konnichi, jiki shin, buji, ichigo and others you may know.

      It pays to pay attention. When someone else offers a Zen gomei, or your teacher suggests one, write it down with notes on meaning(s) or if it was from a Zen phrase or poem. Whenever you go to chakai and they give a name, write it down. I keep a notebook of good gomei both seasonal and Zen. If you are amnbitious, you might try to research them from famous utensils . I found Haku gyoku "White jewel" from a famous (meibutsu) bunrin chaire with a drip of glaze, in an exhibition catalog.

      As for seasonal gomei, I find that it is rather more allusional for the Japanese. The seasons are triggered by certain images, and if the image doesn't happen in Japan, it may not make sense. That is why there are kigo, the words that evoke the season. You might try this link http://urasenkeseattle.org/ewcckigo.html.
      That being said, if you have some phenomenon in your locality that everyone can relate to that evokes a specific moment in the season, such as first robin, I do like the reference. However, if your teacher would rather you learn the kigo for the Japanese seasons, (and there are quite a number to choose from), please follow the teachings of your sensei.

      I may have to revisit this topic again.
      Thank you for the good discussion and good luck with your gomei.
      Margie

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    2. Thank you so much for your advice! I am following your suggestion re: words from scrolls (wonderful) and I've also started taking notes on gomei used in okeiko and other tea events - along with any comments that Sensei or others may make about their appropriateness. I think this will be a huge help. As you say - attention pays. *blush*

      Your point about the importance of seasonal allusions was also very helpful. It really helped me realize that kigo have deeper meaning and resonance than may be apparent at first to a non-Japanese student; there's an element of shared cultural 'ah-hah!' that I hadn't thought of before. It sounds like the choice of a seasonal name is, at least partly, also the gift of reminding the guests of a shared cultural experience; so a neologism like 'first robin' must have seemed a little odd! So this now makes a lot more sense to me. Perhaps the best gomei is not only one that is seasonally approprite, but also unites the host and guests in the warm feelings of a shared remembrance. (I don't think I'm finding quite the right words, but hopefully this makes sense.)

      I really appreciate your having taken the time to answer so thoughtfully and skilfully. Doumo arigatou gozaimashita!

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    3. Dear Anonymous, Thank you for your comment. I like your comment that gomei is a gift of reminding the guests of a shared cultural experience or rememberance. I promise to visit this subject again. Thank you for taking part in these comments.

      Margie

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  4. Dear Margie sensei,

    Hello and Happy New Year of the Horse!

    I'm the same 'Anonymous' from our conversation above. Just wanted to let you know about a more recent blog post I discovered that lists formal gomei for koicha: http://nihonjinron.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/formal-gomei/

    I've also been keeping track of formal gomei used by my sensei and fellow students (thank you for that advice!). Although it is lovely to have nihonjinron's blog post as a resource, that personal list is still my first choice for gomei because I know the names will be recognized by, and meaningful to, the other people in my tea group.

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    1. Anonymous,
      Happy New Year to you, too. Thank you for that link. It may be a good resource to try out a new gomei to see if your teacher has any comments. Personal gomei lists come in handy. I recently used my list to name the teabowls created at the raku firing workshop (see post for 1/25/2014). With such good names, I was able to pick the perfect name for each teabowl. Now to the desk to practice my calligraphy skills...

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