Since the tea party, I have finished reading the novel, The Hare with the Amber Eyes, a wonderful read by Edmund de Waal. The book is a history of objects, in this case, of netsuke, "hard explosions of exactitude," he calls them. Edmund de Waal believes objects need biography and he has a strong sense of story-telling around how objects get passed on.
Reading The Hare with Amber Eyes has encouraged me to think about the stories my mother's tea cups tell. I've brought out three of them for display and I expect to keep rotating them. The cup and saucer on the book shelf in the library are stamped CHICKARAMACHI, Made in Japan. The cup features a hand-painted rural scene of a windmill by the side of a river with a mountain in the background. An empty landscape has been painted on the saucer.
As I handle the cup, I am struck by its light weight and the transparency of the bone china and I am reminded of how my parents and I used these cups--together. When I visited, I cut flowers from the garden, took down the teacups from their display and got out other "pretty things." My visit and the presence of all these beautiful things created a sense of celebration. Collectively, they focused our attention and made us mindful of our time together as something prized and beautiful, like the tea cups.
Did my mother only use the tea cups when I visited? I don't know. I do know my mother loved dishes. The cups and saucers provided variety and, pragmatically, required less storage space than would be required for entire tea sets. Many were received as gifts, perhaps all. They represented bonds, then, a tie to people she loved and cared about. Their function served time spent together with others in happy community and good talk. All of this would have been gratifying to her, as it is to me.
The sense of touch brings with it an awareness of boundary--of boundary against boundary; touching is separation and connection at once. Knowing this, I wonder what happens if I encounter these teacups as something unknown, unfamiliar, without recognition and memories? This is next step, a space for future awakening. Beginning with a question is, I believe, a great place to start in terms of the story of these objects.
