The Safety Pin Cafe : Kamishibai: Japanese Paper Theatre

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Kamishibai: Japanese Paper Theatre

I was making dinner chopping onions, a thumb-sized glove of garlic and the stalks of red and yellow chard. Rice bubbled and steamed until I lifted the lid to let the angry rice sounds out. Just to be sure all the angry part of the rice went somewhere else I opened the window. Whoosh. Most cooks can multi-task, in a busy kitchen its a must. But, the skill of an excellent cook is to never lose track of one dish at the expense of the other two you might also be tending. Something like that happened today.

I'm not sure how it happened but I found KAMISHIBAI somewhere between steaming rice and chopping mushrooms. It's really quite a wonderful accidental meeting. Do you know kamishibai?

Now I do too and I love it.

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"we tell it slant"

We're not social realists, we're fantasists. We tell the truth, like poets, but we tell it slant -- we clothe it in symbol, archetype, and metaphor. But if we are to write or illustrate fantasy well we must do the work of understanding the classic tropes we use as best we can. Through reading. Through research. Through curiosity and sensitivity about lives and traditions far different than our own. Through building a relationship to the wild wherever we are. Know the place and the land on which you are rooted, and then move outward from there. - Terri Windling

THE SAFETY PIN CAFE'S MISSION

From the original medicine story The Safety Pin Cafe, its "Introduction" is the foundation upon which we offer what we know:

"We cross borders without regard, ignorant or arrogant of the protocol native to the transitional spaces that take us from this place to that place. Traditions remembered and practiced would maintain and pass along the right things to do, at the right time, and in the right frame of mind. Have we all become wanderers with passports un-stamped with the memory of teachings from the Ancestors and Nature? There are rituals to remember and common magic to induce respect and reverence for the beings and places that share this planet."

"When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically. In this context the proponent of an activity, rather than the public, should bear the burden of proof. The process of applying the precautionary principle must be open, informed and democratic and must include potentially affected parties. It must also involve an examination of the full range of alternatives, including no action." - Wingspread Statement on the Precautionary Principle, Jan. 1998

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Sunday, November 23, 2014

Kamishibai: Japanese Paper Theatre

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