When looking through my Japanese temari books for a pattern to celebrate New Year 2015, I came across a design that is one of my favorites. It's an older temari design that conveys the symbolism and feeling of celebration for this most famous of all holidays in Japan. A flood of my own New Year memories from living in Japan came back to me!
For the coming year and for all years, I wish you beauty and endurance, strength and flexibility, and resilience and longevity!
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| New Year Temari 2015 by Barbara B. Suess |
Our little family moved to Yokohama in 1987, towards the end
of the year. Terry, a research
scientist/manager for DuPont, was recruited to help DuPont Japan start up a new
research facility. Alison was just a year old and since I’d quit my job to stay
home with her, the timing was perfect for us. Four years of living in the Far
East was a wonderful adventure!
Before the move, we’d spent eight weeks that fall in San
Mateo, California, in intensive language and culture training. How nice it was
to be able to jump into life in Japan with a basic understanding of the customs
and a bit of “survival” Japanese language skills. I could get in a cab and talk to the driver. I
could find the grocery store and ask questions and understand the currency.
Even with all the preparation, day-to-day life in Yokohama was always full of
surprises.
When looking through my collection of temari books from
Japan for a design suitable for a New Year celebration, memories of that time
of year came flooding back to me. There is a lot of information about this special
time of year in Japanese culture. Just do an internet search and you’ll be
overwhelmed! What I remember is a bit different. It all revolves around our family living in a foreign land.
Running up the steep stairs to the roof of our house in the
evening with my toddler and husband, trying not to fall! Fireworks were
exploding over Yokohama harbor. We couldn’t quite see the ships in the harbor,
just the tops of the huge cranes positioned there to lift cargo containers. At
night, we had an incredible view of the fireworks though. I remember cold air,
wind, oohing and aahing over the pretty explosion of lights, and seeing their reflections in
Alison’s big blue eyes.
I remember one afternoon, probably January 3 or 4, pushing
the stroller up a hill on the way back from the park. When we reached the top
of the hill, I glanced up, did a double take, and realized that on the horizon,
so huge and so close I could almost touch it, stood Mount Fuji. Covered in snow and crystal
clear. “Fuji-san!” I’m sure I made a fool of myself shouting like that, but who wouldn’t be
impressed? It was a glorious moment. We’d been living there for several months
and could only now see the famous mountain because the factories had been shut
for the New Year holiday.
The Three Companions
of the Deep Cold
I think John Dover best described the symbolism of this
group of companions in his book The Elements of Japanese Design.
“Pine (matsu).
Green through all seasons, the pine – like the chrysanthemum, tortoise, and
crane – was an auspicious sign of longevity, symbolizing a thousand years of life.
Resistant to the wind, resilient beneath the snow, it joined the bamboo and
early-blooming plum blossom as one of the ‘three companions of the deep cold’
of Chinese tradition. At New Year’s in Japan, pine branches are attached over
the door or gateway of the house.
“Plum Blossom (ume).
The plum blossom represents more than beauty in the Orient. Delicate and
fragile, it nonetheless appears early in the year, impervious to lingering
winter chill…the plum blossom remained true to its tradition of endurance and
emerged as one of the more popular motifs in Japanese heraldry.
“Bamboo (take).
Versatile, graceful, and auspicious, from ancient times bamboo has played an
extraordinarily large role in Japan... Its endurance throughout the seasons has
caused it to be associated with such virtues as constancy, integrity, and
honor.”
(From The Elements of Japanese Design by John Dover)
Supplies
Thread wrap – combine yellow sewing thread with gold
metallic machine embroidery thread, wrapping with one strand of each. This
helps keep the metallic from sliding off the ball.
Marking thread – thick gold metallic like Nordic Gold from Rainbow Gallery
Embroidery thread – Pearl cotton #5 in dark green, medium green, red, brown, and white.
1. Make a ball 27 - 32 cm in diameter. Wrap with yellow sewing
thread and gold metallic thread.
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| First power wrap with white and yellow thread. |
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| Then power wrap with yellow. |
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| Wrap with a single strand of yellow. |
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| Wrap with yellow and gold metallic together |
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Finally, wrap with gold metallic. It slips off the ball so spend
a lot of time stitching back and forth over the thread wrap
to keep everything in place. You'll find it well worth the time! |
2. Mark in a combination 10 division with thick gold metallic
thread.
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| Mark in a combination 10 division. |
3. Pine - In one of the pentagons on the C10, stitch 3 lines in each small triangle with dark green thread. You can stitch under the pentagon center and continue to the triangle opposite to keep thread from building up in the middle. Then stitch french knots in the center to represent pine cones. Use a double strand of brown thread with two wraps around the needle. Repeat this motif so there are four on the ball.
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| Completed pine design. |
4. Plum - Stitch a kiku herringbone design with the inside points beginning 0.5 cm from the center and the outside points beginning about .7 cm from the edge of the pentagon (red pins in the photo). The inside points are stitched on the pentagon's short lines and the outside points are stitched on the long lines.
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| Marking for plum. |
Stitch 5 rows with red thread. For rows 2 - 5, drop down away from the center further than you normally would. This will open up the petals a bit. Keep your tension rather loose.
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| Plum - step 1 |
Then stitch an open pentagon (3 rows) with red thread on the short lines of the C10 pentagon. Position so the last row is taken next to the edge of the marked C10 pentagon. Then, if you like, add a pine needle design with thin red thread in the center of the plum (see last photo). Stitch 3 more plum designs on the ball.
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| Plum - step 2 |
5. Bamboo - Stitch 5 spindles (3 rows light green and 1 row white). Tack the ends of the spindles if needed to secure. Then stitch 3 spindles (1 row white). Leave the pins in place for now.
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| Bamboo - step 1 |
Then with white thread, stitch 3 zigzag paths across the spindles. This will hold them in place so you can remove the pins. Stitch three more bamboo designs on the ball.
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Happy New Year 2015 Temari
by Barbara B. Suess |
Oshogatsu Temari
