Maddox and I took a couple of last field trips before we wrapped up our homeschooling adventure. Our last castle visit was to Katsuren located in Okinawa City. Katsuren Castle had it's heyday in the mid-15th century and was the home of Lord Awamari before he was overthrown by the king. Maddox clearly doesn't need a lord or a king...she can rule all by herself, thankyouverymuch.
We saw so many castles during our stay that it was tempting to be rather non-chalant at this last site. But the views of bays on both sides of the peninsula and the extensive curved walls really did amaze me once again.
At one point I had hoped that we would make it to all 9 of the World Heritage sites that are in Okinawa. We ultimately made it to seven of the nine, which was pretty darn good! And Maddox's trips to all of these castles fulfilled one requirement for a Brownie Try-It badge. I'm betting she'll be the only Girl Scout in Durham with this cool badge!
I think that I probably learned more about Okinawan history than I have learned about our adopted hometown of Durham, NC or my native hometown of Keene, NH. Already in the few months we have spent in Albuquerque, I feel my adventurousness waning as the usual pressures of daily life creep in. It is not possible (for me anyway) to live life in a "sabbatical state of mind", but I do hope that there are aspects of this mindset that I can find a way to nurture when life returns to its regular rhythms.
For one of my favorite field trips, we went with a friend from OIST to Shuri Ryusen in order to see some of the traditional Okinawan art called bingata. This artisan store revived the traditional method of this unique art in the 1970s. Although this fabric art dates to the 14th century, the traditional methods were abandoned after World War II, but have been resurrected in recent decades.
The store produces rolls of this time-intensive handiwork that is absolutely beautiful. We were able to see some artisans at work, and then we went to a DIY section where we got to try our own hand at some crafts. The bingata requires a great attention to detail that I wasn't sure that Maddox and I could sustain, but our talented friend gave it a shot!
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| Bingata brushes |
The woman did a demonstration of exactly how to dab the specialized brushes. The painting is actually done on the back of the fabric.
Our friend worked with painstaking effort for quite a while and when she thought she was finished, she called over the woman helping us. She had to continue correcting and re-doing parts of it until it was deemed satisfactory! It would be a great "road block" on an Okinawan leg of the Amazing Race.
I knew that Maddox and I would be better off with a slightly less precise craft, so we tried our hands at coral dyeing. We were given paints, a variety of coral shapes and sizes, and balls of fabric that were used to rub the paints on top of the coral patterns.
Maddox chose a tote bag to decorate, and she covered every inch of it with color and patterns, both inside and out.
I chose a scarf. I wish I had a better eye for colors and patterns, but I had fun playing designer anyway. As you can see in the photo below, some of the coral pieces were quite large, and allowed for some cool layered stencils.
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| My finished product! |
This was such a fun hands-on experience for us and we still use our handmade souvenirs from that day. Less than two weeks left until departure, but still so much to see!
Next up on the blog: John goes viral on Twitter and Zoe is kawaii!
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