Friday, February 17, 2012

Rabindranath in Japan (contd-9)

A teacher of the Art of Flower-arrangement came to visit Tagore  in the afternoon on 3rd June and showed him several examples of the arrangement of flowers. Rabindranath wrote regarding this ;
"  Yesterday, two Japanese girls came and showed  me the art of arrangements of flowers in this country. In this action there are many preparations, many ideas, many techniques to perform which is unbelievable. One has to give one's attention to each stem, each leaves. The visual rhythm and music are well within their knowledge, I have come to understand from those two Japanese girls."
 Rabindranath joined a tea party on 4th June and wrote;
" On that day an well to do Japanese invited us in a tea party.I came to understand clearly it is like the rituals of their religious activities - just like their national festivals. One comes to understand the ideals they are aiming at."
It was his aim to find out their ideals.He anlysed this in his letter written on the same day. Seeing externally he thought that Japan has lost its identity by going to copy the west. But he could perceive by observing the dresses of their females and their life style, by seeing their tendency not to waste their energy by unnecessary shouting, by coming to know their reservation in their feeling in poetry. He came to feel this after coming over here.
They started  for Tokyo by train on 5th June. In different railway station he was greeted by Indians and Japanese. In Sizouka station 20 Budhist monks greeted him in a new fashion which Rabindranath explained in his read out article, titled "The spirit of Japan";
" While travelling in a railway train, I met at a wayside station, some Budhist priests and devotees. They brought their basket of fruits to me and held their lighted incense before my face, wishing to pay homage to a man who had come from the land of Budha. The dignified serenity of their bearing, the simplicity of their devoutness, seemed to fill the atmosphere of the busy railway station with a golden light of peace. Their  language of silence drowned the noisy effusion of the newspapers I felt that I saw something which was at the root of Japan's greatness."
The brother of Okakur was a Professor of Yoshisaburo in Numazu station.He came to bid respect to Rabindranath. In Kozu station, the  principal, SoejimYasanko,  of India-japan association and the members of the organisation and The Budhist priest Takoda Toyoshiro came and greeted him.