2015 is Year of the Ram/Sheep

Saturday, January 3,  from 1 to 4:30 p.m. at Yume Japanese Gardens, 2130 N. Alvernon Way, Tucson.

“Pick up your brush and greet 2015 — the Year of the Ram — with a Japanese ink brush painting (sumi-e) and New Year’s card that you create yourself. Zen Tribe wellness instructor and calligraphy artist Yoshi Nakano will show you how to write your name and New Year’s greetings in Japanese and how to create an image of a ram with deft brush strokes that you can mail to friends or frame for your wall.

Carolyn Classen will teach you games played with traditional flower-decorated hanafuda cards as you eat Japanese sweets and sip green tea. Then, take in a gallery of Yoshi’s inspirational abstract calligraphy that he calls “brush art meditation.” All activities are free with regular admission to the Gardens”,www.tucsonjapanesegardens.org.

Sansei Carolyn Sugiyama Classen learned to play hanafuda as a small child in Hawaii, has taught it at the Tucson Origami Club and to the APASA (Asian Pacific American Student Assn.) at the University of Arizona.

Hanafuda cards

The full moon will set the scene on the evening of Saturday, December 6 for an original theatrical performance of the beloved Japanese folktale Kaguya Hime — The Bamboo Princess. Children and adults alike will be enchanted as performers in masks engage in storytelling, dance, and shadow play to the sound of traditional bamboo flute music and taiko drums.

Curtain time is 6:00 pm and admission is $15 for members, $17 for non-members, and $20 at the door. Admission does not include entrance to the Gardens. For convenience, buy tickets online at www.tucsonjapanesegardens.org –  Click on “News and Events” and then “Buy Tickets.”

You won’t want to miss visiting Yume Japanese Gardens on Saturday, Dec. 6 for a special holiday gift wrapping workshop.

Learn how to make stylish showstoppers of seasonal gifts by wrapping them in traditional Japanese furoshiki. These intricately knotted and colorfully printed squares of cotton will make any present a sight to behold. And if you’re buying Japanese items at our gift shop to give at Christmas, nothing could be more appropriate than to package them in furoshiki.

Date: Dec. 6 Time: 1 – 3 pm Cost: $18 (includes all materials, but not admission to the Gardens). Registration is required; call 520-332-2928 or email yume.gardens@gmail.com For convenience, buy your ticket online at tucsonjapanesegardens.org (Click on “News and Events” and then “Buy Tickets.)