Silk-reeling

Here is a Japanese silk-reeling machine (central, with handle) from the authentic old wooden Binka house in Kew gardens. It is in a display about the use of silk and bamboo in traditional Japanese life. This model is almost identical to the Chinese devices to spin silk and would have been used mounted on a table or stand, with the handle at a comfortable height to turn in the hand with the (usually female) operator standing. Last year I watched the 60's film 'A Touch of Zen' in which one of the characters is shown using one of these. I was immediately struck by how similar the movement was to our simplified T'ai Chi 'silk-reeling' movements, at least in the arm and hand. Chansu-jin, silk-reeling, spiralling, figure-8-ing... is a vast area with simple as well radically deep ramifications and meanings in our T'ai Chi, which I won't be going in to here. It might have been named, however, for the physical appearance of it's movement, in the way that we might describe the leg movement of one of our warm-ups as 'bicycling' the leg, as that is a familiar action to us all, and bypasses the need to say 'lift the leg, move the knee in a circular path', etc, etc. Whatever the case, I urge you to have a look at the display in Kew if you can, it is very moving to inhabit the simple space of the communal Binka house and to see the open rafters, all skilfully built without a single nail being used. This month brown long-eared bats have taken residence too, but they only wake up at dusk, and hide in nooks and crannies during the day. For die-hard silk-reeling enthusiasts amongst you, the scene is toward the end of 'A Touch of Zen', which is otherwise unfortunately a poor 1960's martial arts film with some very dodgy hair-do's and lacklustre stunts. Anyway, it's fun trying to imagine a T'ai Chi teacher of old trying to explain to a rather dull student how to start spiralling: "No, not like that! More like your sister when she's reeling the silk by turning the handle... yes... now you've got it."