Our Planet

Yanokono ’s Tanabata is unique, in which children collect rainwater from drops on leaves, make ink with the water and draw with it. We consider the series of actions as prayers. Asako-san, Yuki-san, and Tomoko-san looked back on this year ’s Tanabata.

Text : Asako Sugano

On the day of this year ’s Tanabata, A-chan came wearing a pure white outfit. Yamanoko staff asked her mother if it was okay for her daughter to play with black ink while wearing white. She replied, ”It ’s A-chan ’s first encounter with sumi (墨ink), so she wore white clothes as a memorial”.

When I heard about this episode, I imagined what kind of beautiful ink patterns the white shirt would have, and at the same time I was shocked at how the idea of wearing white clothes had never occurred to myself. I realized that my assumption that children should be wearing dark colored clothes while playing with sumi may have been tied to my subconscious that sumi on paper is artwork and sumi on other places is dirt.

This realization led me to rethink my own fundamental way of interacting with children, which is to value the process. When I saw the children of the Kogomi group running around wielding inked brushes, I thought to myself, ”Oh, there are no sheets on the floor there, so it will be hard to clean. I want them to play within the prepared area”, or that they were enjoying the feel of the paint on their bodies, I worried about whether enough sumi would be left for them to draw on the paper. I reflected that next time I would like to enjoy every moment with them.

I would like to be able to truly care for the children in my own life in the future, as shown by the way the Yamanoko Tanabata activity is organized, where the purpose is not to make Tanabata decorations, but to collect water to make ink, and to touch the ink and enjoy the process.

In her reflections on the Tanabata, Mina-san, a staff at Yamanoko-home, also said that it was interesting to see how each child encountered sumi not only through the cardboard, but also through the things around them.

 

Z-kun

Z-kun tried to draw on the door with ink, which was transparent like carbonate. He observed how the individual grains of ink popped and emerged.

 

Sy-kun

He dipped the tip of the brunch in ink and started drawing on the white plastic sheet on the floor. He was enjoying the way the plastic sheet bounces off the ink.

 

G-kun

While holding a pine cone, he rolled sumi on the cardboard and drew. He seemed to avoid touching sumi directly, but used things around him to touch it! It showed his desire to touch sumi!

 

Sr-chan

She turned over sumi in the tray onto the paper in full blast. She touched the puddle of sumi that spread slowly on both of her hands.

 

In the theme of taking the whole Tanabata act as a ”prayer”, I feel that I made myself face the profundity of accepting every act of a child as their expression. For me, this year ’s Tanabata led to the inquiry of how much I, as an adult by their side, can guarantee children ’s freedom of expression while enjoying it together from the bottom of my heart.