Goodbye, Mokumokuren 👀👁️ (Patreon)

Since I wasn't raised in Japan and I'm not a cat, I've never felt the pure joy of poking holes in shoji paper. The above video is me crossing that off my Bucket List.

A couple months ago, suddenly holes started appearing in our shoji screens. I'll fess up to adding one or two by accident, moving a chair or trying to open the door and my hand slipping. But after those, they just kept popping up. Very strange. Soon they were all very ragged looking and embarrassing as you can see them from outside.

And aside:

A mokumokuren is a yōkai that is basically disembodied eyes that show up behind the holes in shoji doors and windows. Below is Toriyama Sekien's depiction. They don't really do too much, are more unsettling really. Another side note: Michell's artwork for the mokumokuren in the yōkai oracle deck is soooo good! I asked if she could make the eyes emotional and she knocked it out of the park. I can't wait for everyone to see it💕.

Back to our shoji. You can either pay someone to come and repaper or you can do it yourself. The last time I repapered shoji was with my mother-in-law. Very traditional. We waited for a rainy day, set them outside, so the paper gets soaked and the glue basically melts away. Then we peeled off the paper and wiped off the glue. We let them dry for a day or two inside, boiled our own flour glue and rolled the shoji paper onto the frames, careful not to make wrinkles, and cutting off the excess when done.

Richard just soaked the glue parts with a water spray bottle and that's where I got to poke holes. We pulled it all off, then he dried with a hair dryer and instead of making homemade glue or using special shoji glue, they have iron on paper now. Nuts! And so much easier.

So this video is the time lapse of him doing one of the doors. Just thought I'd share. 

Also, I'm working on a post with photos of my trip to the mountain Kintaro was raised on. That was pretty cool. It was my first time somewhat hiking after the hospital stint and I did manage to reach my goal (about halfway up). Richard -- bless his heart -- kept asking, you SURE you don't want to go back down? You SURE YOU DON'T WANT TO GO BACK DOWN? Really cool photos of the boulder Kintaro sliced in half with his axe. I'll get that up this week. Until then...

Please everyone stay safe and well, XOXO,

terrie