[D13, MA] Art & performance space - Festival of Musubi-no-Kami

[Agasha Yuna]

The courtyard had been decorated in honor of Musubi-no-Kami, the Fortune of Marriage. On one side, there were places to exhibit art and to perform.

Participants in the festival can visit all three spaces (open RP, shrine, and art/perform area). You do not have to choose.

Please feel free to post a description of your art or performance. Any art or craft or performance or theological sermon or prayer are welcome.

Note that one aspect of the event is the opportunity to donate works of art to the largest temple to Musubi-no-Kami in Otomo lands. You can note in your description if you are planning to devote your item, or how you are doing so. For example, a story could be performed, but a written copy donated.

(Feel free to include a roll with your contribution. Any art, craft, perform, or lore: theology is relevant.)

[Soshi Eiji]

"Friends, I have an old tale to offer, perhaps a bit dated, but it clearly shows respect to the understanding that Musubi offers to those who think to listen:"


Okami, the great and powerful warrior, had only been married to his clever wife Riko for a short time before she came to realize that he was far from her equal in matters of cunning. She decided to test him by sending him on a nonsense errand.

“Oh husband,” she said to him. “Your foolish wife has broken her last left-handed widdershins porridge stick. I would send the servants for one, but they are such simpletons that they can never get the right kind. I would go myself -- but while the Merchant Quarter has left-handed porridge sticks, and widdershins porridge sticks, they don’t have sticks that are both. For those, you have to go to the Fisherman’s Quarter.

Okami certainly didn’t want his wife venturing into an area as rife with ruffians as the Fisherman Quarter, so he asked her where in that area he could find a left-handed, widdershins porridge stick.

“I’m afraid I simply don’t recall the name of the merchant who makes them,” she said, batting her eyes.

So her great husband lumbered out of their house looking for a left-handed, widdershins porridge stick. Now, any sensible person knows that a porridge stick is simply a rod the length of a forearm and as thick as a finger. It can be used in either hand, turning the porridge in a circle to the left or the right. But Okami knew that his wife was a clever woman, and because he did not want to appear stupid to her, he set out to complete a task that made him look stupid to everyone he asked. For of course, no one had ever heard of a left-handed, widdershins porridge stick -- and few were anxious to argue about it to a man of such massive and warlike aspect.

Okami was not of a nature to go back on his word, or to admit that he had failed to do something when he said he would do it; so each day he set out to find the porridge stick, never giving up, even though he was quite tired of the puzzled looks of various people in the Fisherman Quarter.

Since the episode on the Bridge of Drunken Lovers, Riko had not seen her friend from the Crane clan, so one day she decided to invite him over to drink tea and gossip, as they had before they had married. She did this even though Okami had told her to keep away from him. “Don’t worry about Okami,” she told her friend. “He will be gone all day on a foolish errand.”

However, in this she was wrong; that was the very day that Okami completed his search. A certain cunning sailor had heard that a nobleman was looking for a left-handed widdershins porridge stick, and so he took his fishing knife and carved several rods into stirring sticks. Early the next day, he stood near the Gate of Condescension calling “Porridge sticks! Finest in the land! Left handed and widdershins, porridge sticks right here! Presently, Okami emerged and, hearing the call, asked him if he had a porridge stick that was both left-handed AND widdershins.

“I’m not sure,” said the cunning fisherman. “That is a rare and expensive item, and I may have sold my last… no wait, I have one right here! And with that, he produced a stick upon which he had carved the words, “left hand” and “widdershins”. Okami was overjoyed to have found the item at last, and while he thought the asking price of three koku seemed a bit expensive, he paid it because he was grateful to finally fulfill his promise.

Imagine his chagrin, then, when he returned home and saw his Crane clan rival entering his house. Okami immediately stormed inside and, with much shouting and breaking of objects, ejected the offending Crane, who fled with a great deal of haste.

Now, however, Okami had another problem. All his neighbors had seen him fling the Crane from his home, and all had heard him shouting. It did not take them long to surmise that the Crane had been Riko’s lover -- even though this was not true, and Riko, Okami and the Crane man himself all denied it. The Crane’s rapid flight from the city did more to confirm their suspicions than allay them.

As for Riko, it was as if her eyes had been opened. The speed with which her former suitor fled made her realize what a coward the Crane was and, furthermore, had always been. When she understood this, she also saw how honorable her husband had been, spending day after day seeking something as trivial as a porridge stick.

She went to her husband and flung herself at his feet, confessing her deceitfulness with many tears but assuring him that she had never been unfaithful with the Crane. It took some explaining before Okami finally grasped the situation, but when he did, his mind was greatly disturbed.

“You have lied to me, made a fool of me in public, and brought shame to our household,” he said at last. “Even if you were not his lover, you ought to be punished. What is the accepted punishment in Ryoko Owari?”

At this, Riko turned pale, but because she now respected him she told him the truth. “You are supposed to publicly beat me with a staff.” she whispered.

He thought a moment, then said, “So be it.”

Soon, she found herself standing before her neighbors and peers, waiting for her husband to come and beat her with a staff. She was trembling -- and well she might, for her husband’s arms were each as thick around as both of her legs. When he arrived, he was carrying a massive tree trunk, as thick as her waist. The entire crowd gasped.

“My wife has wronged me and brought shame to our household,” Okami said, swinging the tree trunk. “Now, I shall give her the punishment she deserves for her lies. Wife, turn your back, for I would not want you to have to see this coming.”

Pale and terrified, she turned and braced herself. She did not see him pull from his sleeve his specially carved porridge stick, and it was with that slender rod that he struck her one time, across her backside.

“This is her punishment,” he told the neighbors. “For while she did lie to me, she did not betray me with that man, and anyone who calls her a shameful woman can answer to me.” With that, they went home. Nine months later, they had their first son.

[Kitsu Sayomi]

Sayomi was not sure how to best honor Musubi-no-kami. Love poetry tended to focus more on romance than matrimony, and she considered for a moment to make some decorative knots, but thought better of it since it would have to take some explaining probably.

So for the past days in her spare time, she had worked on a painting of the Weaver Girl, from the old story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. If she had had more time, she might've been able to make one of the Cowherd as well, but alas.

In neat calligraphy underneath the painting, she wrote the story of the two lovers.



(painting by Warwick Goble)

"Once there was a maiden by the name of Isawa Tanata, who was a skilled weaver. So beautiful were her creations that the Fortunes themselves smiled upon her, and beseeched Shiba-no-Kami to allow her to live forever in the Heavens, so that she may create garments of splendour for the Celestial Court.

Isawa Tanata however was in love with Akodo Ujihata, a man of few means that herded cows for his family, and he in turn loved Tanata. Ujihata pleaded his case and confessed his love for Tanata, but the two were denied to be wedded to one another. Even as their love ran deep into their souls, the pair would not dare to bring dishonor to themselves or their families by eloping or choosing their love over their families and duties.

The Fortunes did take pity on the pair, especially Benten-no-kami and Musubi-no-kami. So when Tanata was elevated to the Heavens to be the weaver of the Fortunes themselves, Benten-no-kami elevated Ujihata as well. But to ensure that the two lovers would not be given into temptation, Musubi-no-kami created a river of stars between them, allowing them only to meet on one day of the year.

Once each year, on the ninth day of the Month of the Boar, we observe the meeting of the two lovers. We act as their continued chaperones as Tanata crosses the river, buoyed by a flock of magpies that help her stay above the water of the river, so that she may see her true love."

[Shiba Ryusei]

Ryusei's own offering was simple.

Calligraphy.

And theology.

Marriage, as presided over by Musubi-no-Kami, is known even in Tengoku.

And none express the challenges Musubi-no-Kami can help surmount better than Isora and Suitengu.

Two tempestuous Fortunes, who don't always get along.

But the Sea and the Shore are wed- in good times and in bad.

And their union endures, as each complements and helps define the other.

[Agasha Yuna]

Yuna's offering was also calligraphy.

She had found a beautiful orange paper with flecks of gold in it, and made a wall hanging with the orange paper, lined by gilt edges, and then framed by dark green.

Phoenix and Dragon colors.

The calligraphy read 夫婦円満. A Japanese phrase that meant matrimonial happiness or happy marriage.
The direct translation of the kanji was: “Husband wife circle complete”.

And that's how she felt. Complete. Happy. Grateful.

Very grateful to Musubi-no-Kami!

The letters were beautifully rendered and had been drawn in such a spirit of joy!

She planned to donate the wall hanging to the temple of Musubi-no-Kami in Otomo lands.

[Agasha Sanjuro]

Sanjuro's offering was a metal wall hanging shaped in Musubi-no-kami's honor. He crafted from a strong metal that could stand the test of time the kanji for Happy Marriage, or Double Happiness.

[Asahina Hoshiko]

Hoshiko does decide to work with knots...nothing too complex, since that isn't the point. Shining silk cords are arranged in a broad, flat knot. Dangling from the many cords are origami and wee bits of calligraphy...family, ancestors, duties, social good, children, blessings, and more are depicted among the symbols and kanji. All the threads that make up two lives bound together and in turn changing the arrangement of those threads to one another.

[Otomo Gorobei]

Lord Gorobei, unmarried (not entirely his own fault) presented what might be thought a fairly traditional offering: an ikebana piece that suggested the intertwining of species...a hope for the future. It was quite pleasant, actually, a direct result of his years working with growing things in the gardens of the Imperial holdings.

Artisan: ikebana/awareness | 6k3 ⇒ 28

[Yasuki Ryoichi]

Yasuki Ryoichi's offering was an elegant ikebana arrangement with two tall red flowers, with shorter stemmed flowers of other colors. The whole arrangement was suggestive of a proud couple surrounded by their children.

Red Ikebana.jpeg (52.93 KiB) Viewed 2615 times

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13MA Flower arrangement for Musubi festival, Art: Ikebana/Awareness +Void Point | 7k5 ⇒ 31

[Shiba Ryushi]

Shiba Ryushi decided to play his shamisen portraying a song with the complexity of marriage



//D13 MA Musubi no kami festival perform: shamisen agi 1CR for the fluff | 7k4 ⇒ 28

[Yasuki Masaki]

Unlike many of the other delegates here, Masaki had still not received Musubi-no-kami's blessing herself - either completed or through a betrothal. This was perhaps all the more reason for her to prepare something to honour the Fortune - both to celebrate others' ties and to ask for one in her own future.

What to bring, however, was a bit of a challenge. She couldn't celebrate a specific marriage; figurines or flowers, as she often did, didn't seem appropriate either.

In the end, she went with another work based on Iwai Musubi. But instrad of a single set of rope with straw ornaments on its points, she used six sets of "ropes" themselves made of straw, each in a slightly different colour. The straws were knotted to each other at specific parts, 'tying' the different colours and creating a multicoloured tapestry - as well as a sculpture which is much more resistant than each of the straw -'ropes' on its own.

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D13 MA - Artisan: Wara-zaiku/Awa. TN 20, 2 Raises, VP. | 8k5+4 ⇒ 54 (TN: 30)