Should I say "I'm going to Disneyland?"
Jul. 10th, 2011 04:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdymonkeyI can reveal now that the portion of the group gift I arranged were tea bowls. In an extraordinary case of good shopping karma, I found two which turned out to be from the same seller, bid on and won both. Sora-hime's is a white and blue Seto ware, Takeshi-dono's is rusty orange and white Shino ware. They did not come with boxes, however, I contributed two from my own collection. My bowls can live in padded bags. They've got three young kids - boxes were essential! Designated Group Gift Collector gave me part of the cash she'd collected, having put the rest in gift cards - for some reason I am now blanking on what said gift cards were for. Fabric? Art supplies? We ended up giving them their gifts after court: they had enough official business and I didn't feel right about taking more time out of what was Achilles and Esmeralda's big day.
I wore the Amazing Brocade Hakama from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
crimsongriffin with a white kosode, suikan and tate eboshi. Said hakama are a perfect fit* and were the envy of pretty much everyone. Crown Princess Aurora insisted the pawlonia leaves were strawberry leaves (denoting ducal rank for my non-SCA readers), but I saw through her lame excuse and said she couldn't have 'em. Emiko, Micah and Susan's five year old, LOVED my eboshi, which she could get all the way over her head and see through, it being made from a piece of sheer black ro silk. Takeshi-dono wants one as well, so I had him try mine on. I think if I make his 1/2" bigger than mine it should be fine.
*Perfect fit being demonstrated by the fact that I did not clothesline myself a single time when rising from sitting or kneeling on the floor. I know folks took pictures and hope to snag copies to share with you.
Helped Takeshi-dono with his hitatare and hakama for what I hope is not the last time. Straightened collars for both of them.
Micah brought a drum and odaiko stand so we could play for them to process in and out. After the inevitable wait for arriving royalty, people were summoned to draw nigh and we drummed as T & S processed into court as Prince and Princess. I then downed bachi and slipped up the side aisle to stand behind the thrones for the last time.
It feels like I didn't stay back there very long though. Last Court is when the outgoing royalty gets final pieces of business done. I was called before the thrones three times.
The Princess' Token This may be given to any whom the Princess feels gave "cheerful" help during her reign. The token is determined by the Princess and varies for each reign. In this case, we (various court or guard members and others at Her Highness' discretion) received orgami paper fans made into pins. We were also given some small matted Japanese prints as personal gifts.
The Cambium Award The Cambium is awarded to those who maintain a well developed persona, thereby adding to the spirit of the Society. The token for this award is a small wooden heart. Previous recipients listed here. In a kingdom with more old-timers who claim disdain-for-the-concept-of-persona per capita, this one was huge deal to me. The Principality of the Mists doesn't have a persona award nor is there a Kingdom level one. (There was a great deal of frantic scrambling behind the thrones and a horrified sotto voce "We can't string it!" from Muirenn. I plan on stringing this one with silk like a netsuke and wearing it on my obi.)
Heart of the Princess. This is a relatively new Principality honor and I wasn't familiar with it when called up to grok the significance, still a bit gobsmacked by the Cambium. The official description reads as follows: There are those members of the populace that go so far above and beyond the normal course of loyalty, service and duty that their deeds touch the heart of the Princess. The Princess may honor those extraordinary efforts with "The Heart of the Princess." The token of this award is a cast pewter heart with a coronet and a swan inside it. Katherine and I were called up together for this one. I also received a very nice pottery tea cup in a Shino ware style.
A break was called between Last Court and Investiture, so Micah and I were able to drum Their Excellencies out of court after the new Prince and Princess received the Coronets.
So it's done. It was an amazing ride. I renewed old friendships and forged new ones. I somehow managed to pull off the whole leadership-by-example thing. I drove a lot of miles. I made my Prince and Princess look good. I made a quantity of sake go away. I didn't kill Brain Eating Newbie. I hooked Sciath on lapsang souchang. I got lots of waist-high hugs from Emiko, and full sized ones from a lot of other people. I played a lot of taiko with Micah. I helped introduce people to Japanese culture.
Time to take a little bit of a break now.
I wore the Amazing Brocade Hakama from
crimsongriffin with a white kosode, suikan and tate eboshi. Said hakama are a perfect fit* and were the envy of pretty much everyone. Crown Princess Aurora insisted the pawlonia leaves were strawberry leaves (denoting ducal rank for my non-SCA readers), but I saw through her lame excuse and said she couldn't have 'em. Emiko, Micah and Susan's five year old, LOVED my eboshi, which she could get all the way over her head and see through, it being made from a piece of sheer black ro silk. Takeshi-dono wants one as well, so I had him try mine on. I think if I make his 1/2" bigger than mine it should be fine. *Perfect fit being demonstrated by the fact that I did not clothesline myself a single time when rising from sitting or kneeling on the floor. I know folks took pictures and hope to snag copies to share with you.
Helped Takeshi-dono with his hitatare and hakama for what I hope is not the last time. Straightened collars for both of them.
Micah brought a drum and odaiko stand so we could play for them to process in and out. After the inevitable wait for arriving royalty, people were summoned to draw nigh and we drummed as T & S processed into court as Prince and Princess. I then downed bachi and slipped up the side aisle to stand behind the thrones for the last time.
It feels like I didn't stay back there very long though. Last Court is when the outgoing royalty gets final pieces of business done. I was called before the thrones three times.
The Princess' Token This may be given to any whom the Princess feels gave "cheerful" help during her reign. The token is determined by the Princess and varies for each reign. In this case, we (various court or guard members and others at Her Highness' discretion) received orgami paper fans made into pins. We were also given some small matted Japanese prints as personal gifts.
The Cambium Award The Cambium is awarded to those who maintain a well developed persona, thereby adding to the spirit of the Society. The token for this award is a small wooden heart. Previous recipients listed here. In a kingdom with more old-timers who claim disdain-for-the-concept-of-persona per capita, this one was huge deal to me. The Principality of the Mists doesn't have a persona award nor is there a Kingdom level one. (There was a great deal of frantic scrambling behind the thrones and a horrified sotto voce "We can't string it!" from Muirenn. I plan on stringing this one with silk like a netsuke and wearing it on my obi.)
Heart of the Princess. This is a relatively new Principality honor and I wasn't familiar with it when called up to grok the significance, still a bit gobsmacked by the Cambium. The official description reads as follows: There are those members of the populace that go so far above and beyond the normal course of loyalty, service and duty that their deeds touch the heart of the Princess. The Princess may honor those extraordinary efforts with "The Heart of the Princess." The token of this award is a cast pewter heart with a coronet and a swan inside it. Katherine and I were called up together for this one. I also received a very nice pottery tea cup in a Shino ware style.
A break was called between Last Court and Investiture, so Micah and I were able to drum Their Excellencies out of court after the new Prince and Princess received the Coronets.
So it's done. It was an amazing ride. I renewed old friendships and forged new ones. I somehow managed to pull off the whole leadership-by-example thing. I drove a lot of miles. I made my Prince and Princess look good. I made a quantity of sake go away. I didn't kill Brain Eating Newbie. I hooked Sciath on lapsang souchang. I got lots of waist-high hugs from Emiko, and full sized ones from a lot of other people. I played a lot of taiko with Micah. I helped introduce people to Japanese culture.
Time to take a little bit of a break now.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-07-11 01:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-11 01:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-11 02:39 am (UTC)you realllllllllllllly did good!
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Date: 2011-07-11 03:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-11 03:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-11 04:20 pm (UTC)