The Book

I’m not really sure if I found the book or the book found me.

A while back the annual Matsuri Festival was held in Phoenix.  I hadn’t been in a number of years.  The Akita dog club we belonged to had a display booth and we were regular attendees in years past. We just lost interest in the festival after our beloved Akita, Ashiki   passed on a few years ago.  This past summer we brought a new Shiba Inu puppy, Yoshi into the family.  This seemed like a good year to re-acquaint ourselves with Matsuri Festival and check out the Shiba Inu booth.

We had a nice time; my grand daughter loved seeing the Shiba Inu and Akita dogs.  She got her face painted and made origami flowers.  I had a nice visit with my old friends at The Blue Fin and enjoyed their teriyaki chicken bowl for lunch.  Really liked seeing a number of high school age kids having fun dressing up in their favorite Pokeman and Manga costumes.

On our way back to the car I noticed a swap meet of Japanese stuff.  While wondering around I found a box of used books all in Kanji.  Thumbing through a particular book, I had one of those ah-ha moments.  The book pages would be perfect for printing my butoh prints.  So I bought the book.

Shortly after Matsuri Festival I attended a butoh performance by Debra Minghi and RPM Orchestra at Braggs Pie Factory on Grand Ave.  I knew some members of RPM from my years of hanging out on Grand Ave. and the Paisley Violin. I brought along a sketchbook and managed to get a drawing or two that got worked into dry point prints using the book pages.  The print, Scream Butoh was well received by every one involved. It will be used for the cover art of the DVD produced during the performance.  Since then we’ve had a chance to meet over coffee and discuss our mutual interests in Butoh.  Hopefully, new collaborations will happen down the road.