*This presentation was performed at the Laurie Okuma Memorial Reading on April 2023.
Play with Words & Images
NAOKO's Poetry Styles:
- Word Poems, "Where I Was Born" (Willow Publishing, 2019)
- Graphic Poems, "GLYPH: Graphic Poetry = Trans. Sensory" (Tupelo Press, 2021)
- Text Collage Poems, "We Face the Tremendous Meat on the Teppn" (C&R Press, 2022)
Why Did I Choose a Text Collage Style for "We Face the Tremendous Meat on the Teppan"?
Nagoya Castle, this is a concrete castle. Photo by Naoko Fujimoto (2017)
There are unfamiliar words in the chapbook (a 30 page-long poem) such as Teppan, Fusuma, Kinshachi, etc. Even though readers do not know these words, they may be able to create images for them in their brains from the descriptions.
For Example:
For Example:
金鯱 "Kin shachi" (Golden Carp)
The Kinshachi on the castle
(is a golden nugget; perhaps, large shrinp tempura-like)
- - Page 4
Reference: Tokugawa Art Museum Website
ふすま "Fusuma"
I stand in the burning chaos
holding a fusuma (a large sliding paper door)
- - Page 3
"Hommaru Palace (Destroyed by Fire・Reconstructed)" Photo by Naoko Fujimoto
From the description, readers will know that Fusuma is a large sliding paper door. Here is a photo of one of the fusuma in Hommaru Palace at Nagoya Castle. The Hommaru Palace was destroyed by fire in 1945 during World War II.
The restoration teams recreated fusuma art from original blueprints and old photos. Tokugawa Yoshikatsu (1824 – 1883) was a Japanese daimyō in Nagoya (Owari) city. His hobby was taking pictures with the newest technology from western cultures.
Some fusuma were blank without drawings. Simply, the historians could not articulate the original art on each fusuma. There were not enough photographic records for each door. Once art is destroyed by human conflicts, it is extremely difficult to restore it. It is not just a financial problem, but also the original materials and techniques might not be available in the current era.
Did you create your fusuma image like the photo above when you read my chapbook?
No, I didn't!
TOP: The castle burning in 1945. BOTTOM: Part of the
incendiary bomb, Exhibition at Nagoya Castle. Photo by Naoko Fujimoto
Reference: Nagoya Castle Official Website
And then...I ate teppanyaki with a great view of the concrete castle.
Teppanyaki (鉄板焼き, teppan-yaki) Teppan means a metal plate. Photo by Naoko Fujimoto
The Original Castle. Photo by Tokugawa Yoshikatsu
12 Pages of Abandoned First Approach
"We Face the Tremendous Meat on the Teppan" was not first approached as a text collage poem. I started creating a graphic poem for the completed written work. I wanted to have a comic aesthetic, so I chose a large rectangular sketch book. However, I quickly realized that the graphic poetry style was not working for this poem. So, I would like to show you this incomplete project along with my reading.
When a city's landmark is gone, the identity of its citizens can be staggeringly destroyed - - like a blank fusuma as part of their lives - - a missing fusuma would be never recovered by future generations.
My chapbook needed this uncertainness and concealment. Therefore, I decided to use a text collage style instead of showing graphics.
When a city's landmark is gone, the identity of its citizens can be staggeringly destroyed - - like a blank fusuma as part of their lives - - a missing fusuma would be never recovered by future generations.
My chapbook needed this uncertainness and concealment. Therefore, I decided to use a text collage style instead of showing graphics.
"We Face the Tremendous Meat on the Teppan"
Incomplete
Purchase: "We Face The Tremendous Meat On The Teppan" from C&R Press
