Some of the most popular summer activities include beach bathing, watermelon and ice-cream snacks, fighting mosquitoes and, above all, firework displays. This year I was able to admire the one in Bordeaux.
I love the grandeur of the fireworks bursting into the starry sky, but I'm particularly fond of the senkouhanabi, the tiny hand-held fireworks that are typically Japanese. Wise and unadorned, they represent for me the soul of my compatriots. When I was a child, with my brother and some friends, we used to have fun making these thin rods last as long as possible, at the end of which a glowing ball projected sparks.
Since I've been living in France, I haven't had many opportunities to go to Japan in summer. I'd love to be able to smell that special aroma again, and see that little ball of fire moving up the sprig. It is said that there are five stages in the senkouhanabi process. At the beginning, a small ball forms, like a flower bud, then it grows with energy like a peony and its sparks are projected further away like pine needles to live out its last hours like a willow. Finally, it fades like falling chrysanthemum petals. The Japanese see this evolution as a metaphor for human life, and it's not for nothing that hana-bi literally means "flower of flame". Fireworks alone express the Japanese aesthetic of the transience of life, the spirit of mononoaraware.
I have vivid memories of these little flowers of flame.
Original text
「線香花火の薫り」
夏の風物詩といえば、海水浴、スイカ、かき氷、団扇に蚊取り線香、そして花火ですね。先日のパリ祭での花火は、ボルドーでも盛大に行われました。
打ち上げ花火の迫力も好きですが、やはり夏の日本の心といえば、純国産の線香花火。
小さい頃に弟や友人たちと、誰が一番最後まで線香花火を咲かせられるかを競争したものです。ここ最近は随分とご無沙汰。懐かしくて、携帯のカメラに残っていないか探したほどです。
国産の線香花火は一時期、安い中国産が増えてしまい、絶滅したことがありますが、幸いなことに復活。フランスに移住してから夏に帰省する機会が少なく、来年の夏こそは線香花火をしながら、その薫りとその変化してゆく姿を眺めたいものです。線香花火の変化は５段階あると言われています。初めに火がつき、その形が小さな火の玉。まるで花の蕾に見えることから「蕾」、そして力強く火花が燃えることから「牡丹」、さらに火花が四方八方に激しく飛び出し、その姿が直線的で密集することから「松葉」、やがて火花の勢いは衰え、細くやや垂れ下がることから、枝垂れ柳のように「柳」の姿へ。最後は消える直前が、菊の花びらがひとひらずつ消えてゆくように「散り菊」と表現され、その線香花火の姿は、人の人生そのものに例えられています。まさしく日本の美意識と言われている「儚さ」や「もののあわれ」が凝縮されているようですね。
線香花火の記憶は今でも鮮明に、心に彩られています。
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Maaya Wakasugi
Calligraphy artist
Born in 1977 in Okayama, Japan. Lives in Bordeaux. Maaya Wakasugi was born in 1977, in the province of Okayama. At the age of 6 he began calligraphy, at 17 he held his first exhibition. In 2001, he graduated from the prestigious DAITO BUNKA Faculty of Arts and developed a personal style based on the so-called "ancient characters". Then, his choice of motifs that he liberates from the classical style, as well as the quality of his artistic expression, bring him a notoriety in Japan as well as abroad - exhibitions at NY ART EXPO (New York), at NEXT STEP BIENNALE (Paris), realization of a performance at MoMA. In January 2017 he calligraphed the title "Onna Jōshu Naotora" of the new historical fiction of the national television channel NHK. In 2018 he is the "Guest Artist of the Summer" by the municipality of Andernos-les-Bain. In 2019 he was chosen to calligraph the name of the new Japanese era "REIWA" on the official website of Yahoo! For the past three years he has been training adults from the PHILOMATHIQUE de Bordeaux, as well as primary and secondary school students from the region, in calligraphy workshops, the most recent of which took place at the DON BOSCO Institute in Gradignan.
