This is a question for non-Japanese people out of my curiosity. What is your “standard” to trust a teacher or a master?
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The work pieces, the publications, and the title (like Ph.D) are good benchmarks. However, wouldn’t you expect a teacher of Japanese culture to be able to speak (fluent) Japanese…? At least, I would expect a teacher of English culture in Japan to be able to speak English… When I meet an authentic Italian chef, I expect them to learn from a master in Italy while living in Italy. For some reasons, in crafting, anyone seems to be a “teacher” or a “lecturer” without proper understanding of the culture. Is this because the “masters in crafting” underestimate the audience/students? Or do we underestimate the cultural aspect in craft? I don’t understand how & why.
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I do not consider myself a master/artist. I am learning how to teach & what is Art. At the same time, being Japanese does not qualify me to be a teacher/lecturer by itself. Therefore, I share stories here. Therefore, I share my “unedit version” of stitching in Live Streaming (Youtube) so that people can expect what they can learn from me. ALL of my western friends who are in a profession of Japanese Culture can speak fluent Japanese – and they all say their Japanese is nonproficient & their understanding of the culture is insufficient. I am not saying one needs to master Japanese language to enjoy Sashiko. I just don’t understand how “one” is chosen, for what qualification, to teach something they don’t know fully.
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This leads to another question as well: do we all have to learn English to protect the culture from Cultural Appropriation?
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刺し子を伝える際に時々頭に思い浮かぶのが、昔のテレビ番組「マネーの虎」の一節です。「カナダを伝えるビジネスをしたい」という志願者に、「カナダには何回行ったことがあるの？」という質問に、「行ったことがありません」というやりとり。子供ながらに疑問に思ったのを覚えています。刺し子をする為に日本語を学べとは言いません（そりゃ学んでほしいですが）。ただ、日本文化としての刺し子や襤褸を教えるのであれば、そりゃ日本語で議論できるくらいにはなるべきだと思うんです。英語ができない西洋文化の専門家とかわけわからんやん。
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2021-06-05 11:21:13
For context, I’m Chinese American. To me, teachers and masters are different, with masters being at a higher proficiency and often dedicated to just one or a few related crafts, ex: knowing filigree + enamel as different but related crafts. I believe there’s power in everyone realizing that they can be a teacher because so often, because of gatekeeping, we undervalue our knowledge and skills, especially if we’re women and people of color.
There are certain universal crafts that I don’t mind learning from anyone- even beginners who don’t think of themselves as teachers. That includes but is not limited to sewing, knitting, weaving, and ceramics. But that only applies to those general fields, for crafts that can be found in many cultures.
For me, the distinction lies in the general vs the culturally specific. Every culture can claim heritage in basic 1×1 weaving and a basic running stitch in sewing. Having basic knowledge in those crafts is something I love to see learners of all levels teaching with humility, acknowledging that they are not experts but that they might have something to offer to others, and that it is important to pass on these basic, tactile crafts in our increasingly digital world.
To learn from a teacher😃
Expertise in an area always should mean an authenticity that is about experience towards mastery. But there is much bluster in our society and sadly, not many recognize that.
I love that. I respect Japanese culture but I very bad at learning foreign lenguages. I often 😢 sad about this because real learn came in Japanese. Some friends learn Japanese ad travel often to Japan to study with japanese artisans their craft. I trust their way to learn. I need to do my path in other ways.
I can only comment on what makes a good teacher (to me)
I am in a yoga class and a Pilates class presently and from time to time take other classes.
I am myself a teacher, licensed by the State to teach certain subjects. However, the license issued by the State is only a base. To renew the license and to work as a teacher, advanced study is required. The State established standards for Master Teachers, which I have met. Even then, there are some areas of my teaching in which Mastery *of subject * is not truly achieved. Teaching also involves teaching specific people and bridging the gaps from what they know to the new understanding. A practitioner of Arabic poetry will be better at teaching it to Arabic secondary students than I am. But I am an expert in getting this knowledge, skills, and understanding across to American high school students. They can go to University for later study and go much farther than I have ever done. So I judge teaching by how well they reach the students in front of them. For many types of student needs, the teacher’s language proficiency is not relevant.
I like a teacher who is excited about the subject. I like a teacher who makes good eye contact and has compassion for the people who are not catching on as fast . I love it when a teacher “invites you in” to the subject matter and shows you content that allows you to ask questions and seek truth. I love a teacher who admits they are still learning and sometimes admit they do not know. I respect a teacher when they have drawn from a variety of sources. I long for teachers to construct bridges that allows students to reach across race religion and differences and help the student develop vulnerability to new ideas and different cultures. I’m not sure how this relates to the questions. What would be authentic teaching….I am not sure I know!
I am teaching ‘culture’ at a local highschool and currently doing a project around Japanese Masks. I do not pretend to know it all, yet found a lot of information that I will share with my students to enable them to make their own mask, inspired by the Japanese masks. I like the topic and your point makes sense, yet, at the same time I am feeling competent to share something about Japan, not being a master of Japanese culture at all.
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His humility
I have high standards for calling someone a “master”, but we don’t expect teachers to be masters. A teacher only needs to have more knowledge than I have, and once they have taught me all they can I can search for a new teacher.
As a “teacher” (I teach Art at an international secondary school – but have always found it strange to say out loud!), I make it a point that WE are constantly learning and exploring new techniques/media and it’s perfectly fine to make mistakes! 🙂
As a department, we make the deliberate effort to introduce students to artists and processes from diverse backgrounds and have previously shown students examples of Sashiko and use of Boro. We always get students to research and try and understand the socio-historical context of art/artefacts – would like to think we’re on the right track!
I personally take lessons on Shibori – and yes, I really appreciate that my teachers have lived/often visited Japan (and speak fluent Japanese) to develop their own skills and understanding from masters!
Are you interested in a Japanese American perspective?
In America we have a big problem with trusting authority figures, and therefore we don’t trust the people who are experts in their domain. We don’t trust that the epidemiologists know what they’re doing, so we (not me, using the generic we) trust the podcasts we listen to. We don’t trust that scientists are experts, so people are willing to listen to random people online or on TV talk about climate change. People only trust information from people they “like.” That might be part of it. Also, have you heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect? It is the pattern of how people with very little information on a subject feel extremely confident, and once they learn more their confidence drops, until they are an expert and their confidence rises slightly. But the people who have the most confidence are the people with very little knowledge. It’s a pattern you can see all over the place.