Firstly, an unrelated note here. I know I have neglected this blog for a long time, and I really do regret it. I will try harder from now on. Oh, and my main blog is here, so you might want to take a look.

My last post in my main blog was about iGoogle (Google’s customizable page). I use the tea house theme for my own iGoogle, which I think is wonderful because it changes all the time. I love foxes and the illustration of this particular fox is amazingly cute. Plus it changes during the day. You can see the different illustrations of the upper bar during the different times of the day in the post on my main blog.  You might have noticed the spirits there at 03:14 who eat the oranges which are offerings, they are some kind of a Yōkai which are a class of preternatural creatures in Japanese folklore ranging from the evil oni (ogre) to the mischievous kitsune (fox) or snow woman Yuki-onna.

Here are some Yōkai images that were illustrated during the Edo period. They are ukiyo-e prints, which are Japanese woodblock prints or paintings.

Below is a Kappa, which is a type of water sprite found in Japanese folklore.

Below, there are images of Tengu (天狗^?, “heavenly dogs”) which are a class of supernatural creatures found in Japanese folklore, art, theater, and literature. They are one of the best known yōkai (monster-spirits) and are sometimes worshipped as Shinto kami (revered spirits or gods). Although they take their name from a dog-like Chinese demon (Tiangou), the tengu were originally thought to take the forms of birds of prey, and they are traditionally depicted with both human and avian characteristics. They appear in the children’s story Banner in the sky when the main character trips over one and falls off the face of the mountain. The earliest tengu were pictured with beaks, but this feature has often been humanized as an unnaturally long nose, which today is practically the tengu’s defining characteristic in the popular imagination.

Buddhism long held that the tengu were disruptive demons and harbingers of war. Their image gradually softened, however, into one of protective, if still dangerous, spirits of the mountains and forests. Tengu are associated with the ascetic practice known as Shugendō, and they are usually depicted in the distinctive garb of its followers, the yamabushi.

To add some more differentiation to Yokai, there are also my favorite types, the Kitsune and the Yuki-onna:

Kitsune, 狐, きつね is the Japanese word for fox. Foxes are a common subject of Japanese folklore; kitsune usually refers to them in this context. Stories depict them as intelligent beings and as possessing magical abilities that increase with their age and wisdom. Foremost among these is the ability to assume human form. While some folktales speak of kitsune employing this ability to trick others—as foxes in folklore often do—other stories portray them as faithful guardians, friends, lovers, and wives.

Foxes and human beings lived in close proximity in ancient Japan; this companionship gave rise to legends about the creatures. Kitsune have become closely associated with Inari, a Shinto kami or spirit, and serve as his messengers. This role has reinforced the fox’s supernatural significance. The more tails a kitsune has—they may have as many as nine—the older, wiser, and more powerful it is. Because of their potential power and influence, some people make offerings to them as to a deity.

Yuki Onna (雪女, snow woman) is a spirit or yōkai in Japanese folklore. She is a popular figure in Japanese animation, manga, and literature.

Yuki-onna appears on snowy nights as a tall, beautiful woman with long hair. Her inhumanly pale or even transparent skin makes her blend into the snowy landscape (as famously described in Lafcadio Hearn’s Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things). She sometimes wears a white kimono, but other legends describe her as nude, with only her face and hair standing out against the snow. Despite her inhuman beauty, her eyes can strike terror into mortals. She floats across the snow, leaving no footprints (in fact, some tales say she has no feet, a feature of many Japanese ghosts), and she can transform into a cloud of mist or snow if threatened.

Some legends say the Yuki-onna, being associated with winter and snowstorms, is the spirit of someone who perished in the snow. She is at the same time beautiful and serene, yet ruthless in killing unsuspecting mortals. Until the 18th century, she was almost uniformly portrayed as evil. Today, however, stories often color her as more human, emphasizing her ghost-like nature and ephemeral beauty.

In many stories, Yuki-onna appears to travelers trapped in snowstorms, and uses her icy breath to leave them as frost-coated corpses. Other legends say she leads them astray so they simply die of exposure. Other times, she manifests holding a child. When a well-intentioned soul takes the “child” from her, they are frozen in place. Parents searching for lost children are particularly susceptible to this tactic. Other legends make Yuki-onna much more aggressive. In these stories, she often invades homes, blowing in the door with a gust of wind to kill residents in their sleep (Some legends require her to be invited inside first.)

What Yuki-onna is after varies from tale to tale. Sometimes she is simply satisfied to see a victim die. Other times, she is more vampiric, draining her victims’ blood or “life force.” She occasionally takes on a succubus-like manner, preying on weak-willed men to drain or freeze them through sex or a kiss.

Like the snow and winter weather she represents, Yuki-onna has a softer side. She sometimes lets would-be victims go for various reasons. In one popular Yuki-onna legend, for example, she sets a young boy free because of his beauty and age. She makes him promise never to speak of her, but later in life, he tells the story to his wife who reveals herself to be the snow woman. She reviles him for breaking his promise, but spares him again, this time out of concern for their children (but if he dares mistreat their children, she will return with no mercy. Luckily for him, he is a loving father). In a similar legend, Yuki-onna melts away once her husband discovers her true nature.

HIROSHIGE self portrait

Legend has it that Hiroshige determined to become a ukiyo-e artist when he saw the prints of his near-contemporary, Hokusai. (Hokusai published some of his greatest prints, such as Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji, in 1832—the year Hiroshige devoted himself full-time to his art.) From then to Hokusai’s death in 1849, their landscape works competed for the same customers. More likely though, like many other low-ranked samurai, Hiroshige’s salary was insufficient for his needs, and this motivated him to look into artisanal crafts to supplement his income. It was easy to balance his job and his artistic pursuits, as a fireman was only intermittently busy.

Hiroshige largely confined himself in his early work to common ukiyo-e themes such as women (美人画 bijin-ga) and actors (役者絵 yakusha-e). Then, after the death of Toyohiro, Hiroshige made a dramatic turnabout, with the 1831 landscape series Famous Views of the Eastern Capital ( 東都名所 ) which was critically acclaimed for its composition and colors. This set is generally distinguished from Hiroshige’s many print sets depicting Edo by referring to it as Ichiyūsai Gakki, a title derived from the fact that he signed it as Ichiyūsai Hiroshige.

With The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaidoō (1833–1834), his success was assured. These designs were drawn from Hiroshige’s actual travels of the full distance of 490 kilometers (300 miles). They included details of date, location, and anecdotes of his fellow travelers, and were immensely popular. In fact, this series was so popular that he reissued it in three versions, one of which was made jointly with Kunisada.

Hiroshige went on to produce more than 2000 different prints of Edo and post stations of the Tokaidoō, as well as series such as The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidō (1834–1842). Of his estimated total of 5000 designs, these landscapes comprised the largest proportion of any genre.

In his declining years, Hiroshige still produced thousands of prints to meet the demand for his works, but few were as good as those of his early and middle periods. He never lived in financial comfort, even in old age. In no small part, his prolific output stemmed from the fact that he was poorly paid per series, although he was still capable of remarkable art when the conditions were right — his great One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (名所江戸百景 Meisho Edo Hyakkei ) was paid for up-front by a wealthy Buddhist priest in love with the daughter of the publisher, Uoya Eikichi (a former fishmonger).

In 1856, Hiroshige “retired from the world,” becoming a Buddhist monk; this was the year he began his One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. He died aged 62 during the great Edo cholera epidemic of 1858 (whether the epidemic killed him is unknown) and was buried in a Zen Buddhist temple in Asakusa. Just before his death, he left a poem:

“I leave my brush in the East
And set forth on my journey.
I shall see the famous places in the Western Land.”
- Hiroshige

(The Western Land in this context refers to the strip of land by the Tokaidoō between Kyoto and Edo, but it does double duty as a reference to the Paradise of the Amida Buddha).

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TREE by Hiroshige

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TREE by Van Gogh after Hiroshige

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TREE by Bob Kessel after Hiroshige

Bob Kessel’s art series “100 VIEWS” features pictures based on the works of Hiroshige. These pictures are available as signed and numbered limited edition original fine art prints. Contact Bob Kessel for pricing and availability.

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BLUE MOUNTAIN by Bob Kessel

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FALLS VIEW by Bob Kessel

By no ways a complete list, but here is a timeline of some highlights of world history.

Japan-related dates are written in red.

• 1281: Mongolia was conquering most of Asia. As the Mongolian Navy was heading to Japan to invade, a giant typhoon sunk their entire fleet. Thus saving Japan.
  That typhoon was called 「神風」 (“Kamikaze“), which means “Divine Wind“, in Japan.The World War 2 Kamikaze pilots were named after this typhoon.
• 1346: The Black Plague started and eventually killed nearly half of Europe’s population.
• 1492: Christopher Columbus lands in America. But he believed he was in India and called the inhabitants “Indians“.
• 1603: 「江戸時代」 (The “Edo Period“) begins in Japan.
• 1680: The 将軍 (Shougun), Tsunayoshi, loved dogs and enacted a number of laws protecting dogs and making harming them a criminal offense.He is therefore often called “The Dog Shogun”.
• 1776: America declares it’s independence from England.
• 1789: French Revolution began.
• 1804: Napoleon became the Emperor of France.
• 1854: U.S. Naval Commodore Matthew Perry forced Japan to open to trade with the West.At first Japan resisted and the island of Odaiba was built in Tokyo Bay to defend Japan from the American forces. But Perry’s fleet of black ships were too intimidating and Japan enacted law to allow trade with the West in general and America in particular.The resulting influx of American goods and culture sparked Japan’s “Westernization”.

An Ukiyoe portrait of Cmdr. Perry. His name is written as 「ぺルリ」 ("Peruri") because that's what it sounded like to the Japanese when Perry said his name with his American accent.

1995 January 17: 「阪神淡路大震災」 (Hanshin-awajidai-shinsai), (“The Kobe Earthquake“) destroyed the city of 神戸 (Kobe, Japan).

A collapsed overpass after the Kobe Earthquake; 1995 January.

I know that I left out many important dates. Feel free to write any that you can think of in the comments section of this post.

And did you witness any historic events?

Japanese woodblock printing was first used in 760 AD to distribute one million buddhist texts to temples across japan. Woodblock printing is most practical in the east as opposed to moveable type, since there are at least 40,000 chinese characters to deal with. Woodblock also allows the artist to use script and a personal style.

Woodblock printing was used mainly for religious texts until the mid 1700s, when a rising merchant class began writing in their free time and the invention of Nishiki-e allowed for full color illustrations.

From the wiki:

“Nishiki-e (錦絵, nishiki-e^?) (lit. “brocade picture”) refers to Japanese multi-colored woodblock printing; this technique is used primarily in ukiyo-e. It was invented in the 1760s, and perfected and popularized by the printmaker Suzuki Harunobu, who produced a great many nishiki-e prints between 1765 and his death five years later. In the Meiji period, various nishiki-e illustrated new fashions, imported goods, events, the railroad, and other new topics. “Newspaper Nishiki-e” (新聞錦絵, shinbun nishiki-e) were very popular among the public during this period.　Print designers created nishiki-e on topics picked up from the newspapers such as Tokyo Nichinichi shinbun or Yūbin Hochi shinbun.”

Late in the 1800s, Japan began publishing illustrated newspapers that simply took the most sensational stories from purely text newspapers.

“What sort of news did they report? In organizing some 750 examples of the genre on a CD-ROM, Dr. Reiko Tsuchiya, currently associate professor of Sociology and Media History at Osaka City University, categorizes them according to 16 different themes, such as heroic policemen apprehending thieves; touching acts of filial piety; love suicides; accounts of duels and vendettas; marital discord; crimes of passion; matters involving foreigners; and ghostly apparitions and other weird tales.

These stories were usually, but not always, extrapolated from the original newspaper articles, although they occasionally reverted to traditional legendary figures and popular stories. The illustrated versions typically appeared at intervals of from several days to two months after the first newspaper appearance, and instead of carrying a date were numbered in series.

Dispatches from the war between the sexes was an especially popular theme, as attested to by this particularly gruesome incident, depicted by Shigehiro in a Osaka nichinichi shimbun nishikie dated 1875.

A husband should not allow his affections to stray to other women. A certain couple in Tatsuno, Banshu (Hyogo Prefecture) employed a female servant named Take. The husband fell in love with her and went to sleep with her every night. The wife was moved by deep jealousy and she spent her nights alone in tears. On April 15, while the husband was away, the wife summoned Take and stabbed her to death. She then gouged out the dead woman’s genitals, sliced them and placed them on a platter. When the husband returned, she served it to her husband as hors d’ourvres. When he asked where it had come from, the wife replied, ‘It was a gift from someone.’ After he had finished the snack, he looked at his wife and saw her covered with blood and dead. While he had been eating, she had killed herself.”

From: http://members.jcom.home.ne.jp/yosha/nn/articles/MS_When_tabloids_were_art.html

American tabloids will never be this cool.

Another story I was able to find from this extremely confusing and badly-organized site is about Japanese racism towards taiwanese natives, much in the way europeans described non white peoples as appearing like monkeys and without human feelings:

this is a 12 year old taiwanese native being dressed in a kimono by her japanese captors. She is described as being small and ape-like and without emotion.

Its interesting to note how the Japanese have appropriated a western symbol, the cherub/putti, and used it totally out of context to illustrate events regardless of their content.

Ukiyo-e is a genre within Japanese woodblock printing used to describe scenes that focus on the ethereal, sublime in nature and in the pleasure quarters. While the goal of this kind of art is to produce a pleasureable meditative effect in the viewer as opposed to directly informing them of real events, much of Ukiyo-e is based on observation and especially in scenes depicting outdoor settings, it can be seen as a kind of visual journalism meant to educate the viewer on the beauty of specific places that they may wish to visit in person one day.

hiroshige

hiroshige

Encouraged by my host Suzuki Makoto sensei at Tokyo University of Agriculture, I recently visited the Edo Gardening Flowers exhibit being held at the Ukiyo-e Ota Memorial Museum of Art until November 26,2009. The exhibit has spectacular colorful wood block prints showing flowers and plants in a variety of urban settings including kimonos, at festivals, commercials nurseries, educational materials, Kabuki actors, and Noh dramas.

The exhibit theme is that the Edo period experienced a “gardening culture” in which a passion for gardens and flowers permeated all social classes, including court nobles, shoguns, feudal lords and the common people. According to the catalogue, “the Japanese people’s passion to flowers surprised the American botanist Robert Fortune as seen in his diary upon his visit to Japan in the late Edo period.”

An interesting comparison is also made between between the widespread practice of Edo gardening and also the interest of common people in wood block prints. It is wonderful to see the use of flowers and plants in both high culture realms and in depictions of everyday life during the Edo period.

Two of my favorite prints are collections of plants used by children to learn the names of flowers. The one below, from the back cover of the exhibit catalog, has the names in hiragana. The exhibit also includes Edo era ceramic plant pots.

Some more images after the jump, and also a list of plants seen in the wood block prints.

Plants and flowers I noted from the November exhibit included “Adonis flower” (fukujuso), potted plum tree, narcissus, Chinese lantern, cherry blossoms, pine bonsai, morning glory, chrysanthemum, clematis, hydrangea, iris, peony, azalea, and rose.

As I posted earlier, I have been venturing into Japanese flower arranging.  The pull of the Japanese minimalist aesthetic is very powerful for me, and I was first introduced to it in college when I took a survey course on Japanese art.  I have thought about it a lot, and I decided to write my professor a thank-you note about it – thirty years late.  It took a bit of doing to locate her – her name has changed – and in searching, I came across a talk she gave about this famous print by Hokusai, “The Great Wave.”  [Complete talk  here:  Totebags, Teeshirts, and Tableware: The Domestication of Hokusai's Great Wave.]

In her talk, she addresses issues of the commercialization of art, mass reproduction of images and commoditization for the consumer economy, cultural appropriation of icons, and the history of japonisme in Western art.  The latter has been known for a century among art scholars as an important influence on Art Nouveau, Impressionism, and other trends, but it was brought to the fore in the public mind with one of Thomas Hoving’s first “blockbuster” exhibits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Among the ironies Professor Guth points out is that in Japan in the 1970s, Hokusai, and the Ukiyo-e genre in which he worked, was not exactly a universally lauded high point of Japanese culture.  Indeed, he was considered a practioner of a rather disreputable art form, and not a member of the high-art pantheon, not the least  because he worked in woodblock prints, a medium intended for popular mass consumption.  Ukiyo-e, the floating world, is the culture of the pleasure district, if not the red light district, and one of his more kinky essays in that direction is shown here:

Imagine this on display in a high-profile exhibit of loan works from Japan during its heyday as the International Bogeyman of the American economy!

Guth takes a broad minded view of the inevitable mixing of art and commerce, tracing the ways in which museums aided the transformation of The Great Wave into one of the most recognizable images of Japanese art today.  She dismisses the attitude of one critic whom she quotes early on as saying that museums must hold the line between art and mass-consumption, accepting the situation of today.  After all, anytime you put a person in front of art, you never know what kind of experience they will have.  An opposing view, whether from the right or the left of the political spectrum, decries the degeneration of cultural capital in favor of profit, spectacle, kitsch…etc., sharing a remarkably similar lack of confidence in the power of ordinary people to evolve imaginative responses of their own to art works.

I became aware of the ubiquity (highlighted at this blog) of the Hokusai print myself when I noticed the logo of a clothing line with which my son was obsessed during his skateboarding phase.  I don’t think I have seen another example of the appropriation of the image through such abstraction.

2 DIAMONDS FUJI
by Bob Kessel

2 DIAMONDS FUJI (state 2)
by Bob Kessel

“2 DIAMOND FUJI” paintings are from Bob Kessel’s 2 PIECE SUITE art series.

Mount Fuji ( 富士山 ) is the highest mountain in Japan. An active volcano that last erupted in 1707–08, Mount Fuji is just west of Tokyo, and can be seen on a clear day. Mount Fuji’s exceptionally symmetrical cone is a well-known symbol of Japan and it is frequently depicted in Japanese art. Amongst the most renowned works are Hokusai’s 36 Views of Mount Fuji and his One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji. The mountain is mentioned in Japanese literature throughout the ages and the subject of many poems.

Se presenta en el museo Picasso una exposición que recoge la pintura con temática erótica creada por PIcasso.

La muesta recoge los dibujos y pinturas creadas por el artista al mismo tiempo que muestra la colección personal del malagueño de estampas japonesas de tematica erótica.

La exposición que se puede visitar en el museo Picasso de Barcelona, hace incapie en el uso del sexo en el arte, huyendo de toques voauyers, y mostrandolo como un elemento mas costumbrista y digno de estudios artisticos.

It is an observation of mine, and certainly not an original one, that advertising appears to be encroaching on every aspect of our current life. It appears that it has hit a point of such fervour that from the time we wake up, serenaded by adverts on our radio alarm clock, our eyes and ears continually feast on a commercial market stall whereby every trader wants your business.

However, it took a small and insignificant notice in an off-licence window to make me consider this clamouring world of marketing and its effect on our daily routine and how ‘they’ get you hook, line and sinker- because they do.

The advert in question was the most ineffective and flawed piece of advertising I had ever seen, which made me completely stop in my tracks and peer quizzically at, number one, the product on offer, and number two, the gall this seller had to think this would work.

The ad was a rectangular piece of card about 15 x 8cm, and on it, scrawled in illiterate childish handwriting, was:

“Viagra (underlined) Original 100%
Made by (word scribbled out and then rewritten) Pfizer
Phone me on 079********
Leonard”

See the attached photograph.

Now obviously, there are a few key errors in marketing this sale item that would make any advertiser’s face peel inside out. Even if you’re not in advertising, you may still appreciate that Leonard may not have been at the top of the business world, but: does that make it a bad advert?

Consider this: Leonard’s advert actually made me stop and look closer. It wasn’t because of the wording or content, but the first thing that any consumer sees is a collective picture of the advert and that entices us to read more. Leonard: Creepy old man or Advertising Genius? It may have been his carefree attitude to the advert, a ‘devil-may-care’ debonair dandy demure if you will, but lets not escape the fact that this man is trying to sell Viagra in a newsagents shop window.

Forget the piano lessons, rooms to let, and the far too obvious ‘friendly massages’, my eyes were drawn to his brilliant (and I’m sure tactical) use of underlining the word ‘Viagra’. This was then swiftly followed by a reassuring (maybe even medical) statement ‘Original 100%’. Can you get 95%?

So, we have drawn the consumer in with underlining and then medical reassurance. What next? Leonard gives us a maker and his contact details. What more do you need? I would, however, question why Leonard chose to scribble out the miss-spelt ‘Pfizer’ and write it again, rather than going to his roller-top desk and getting a new piece of card. And anyway, would you know the incorrect spelling of ‘Pfizer’ if you had never heard or seen the word before? I doubt it.

Credit to the man, he has used a fantastic trick at the end. Advertisers these days are desperately trying to make their advertisers more personable and sincere to the consumer. We like to feel like it is only use who are being advertised to. This usually entails simply putting the word ‘mate’ at the end of whatever spiel they have created to make it sound like it’s your best friend selling it to you.

However, unlike many newsagent windows’ adverts, which conclude with sign-offs like ‘call Dave on 07*********’ or simply ‘Tel: 07*********’, Leonard has followed the personal practice and signed his advert like he’s finishing a long letter to Aunt Maggie in Chipping Norton. I don’t doubt that Leonard is still yet to find a purchaser for his product. However, this does not neglect the fact that selling Viagra via an advertisement in a shop window is going to be just as hard as if he said he made the stuff in his own bathtub.

However, this spawned an investigation into signs and adverts that do make me wonder what the marketing department were thinking when they put these out there. All of the collected photographs are my own.

1. This was taken at Charing Cross rail station. It is an advert for the rail station itself, yet it is in the actual rail station. This seems a bit counter productive. If I am already there, surely the mission is already accomplished? Do the marketers want me to want to be there more? It will make your head hurt thinking about it. It’s like reading a newspaper only to find there is a huge double spread advert inside, encouraging you to read the very same newspaper.

However, what I also want to question, is what is the woman on the right holding? The whole photograph looks like front cover to a classy pornography film. This is further accentuated by the line ‘Your ooh perfect match station’. I cannot fathom what this advert was trying to achieve or what it is trying to display.

2. Marks and Spencers are one of those stores that my Grandmother shops at. Their food is good but expensive and their clothes are plain and sturdy. You know what your getting with M&S. Every man in Britain owns of has owned underwear from Marks and Spencer.

So, imagine my consternation upon seeing this advertising leaflet being given out to the public. Are advertisers so clueless that not one of them flagged up the error that ‘Pocket Rocket’ is a term often used for a male state of arousal? There must be a young intern in the marketing department who could have stuck his head around the boardroom door and gone, ‘Uh, guys…’.

3. This one is a particular favourite of mine. An advert for Roehampton University. Now, for a university advert, having three cleverly diverse individuals standing together laughing is the optimum shot. The photograph is flawless. It took me a while, though, to realise why this advert wasn’t quite right. Having the line ‘We can open doors’ next to the photograph that advertises a place of education suddenly looks like they literally couldn’t open doors before. As if door handles, door knobs etc were just beyond their grasp. Take another look and you will understand what I’m talking about.

It’s as if there was a course module in ‘Door Opening’ and all three just passed. The line below doesn’t help in the slightest.

‘For an education that gives you the skills to succeed in your chosen career…’

Door opening is one of those skills offered by Roehampton University.

4. Here is one of those adverts that I am clearly missing the point of but still, as a consumer, it is important to be able to understand the advert at least. I’m talking about the British Airways campaign.

The scene is of a generic city street, with a hotdog/burger salesman behind his grill, frying up food for his customers. Now, the line is:

‘You can’t smell a city from a coach.’

This just makes we wonder if the person who came up with the line knew he was working for an Airline company. You can’t smell a city from a coach? As opposed to what? An aeroplane? I’m sure you can smell the city less at 30,000 feet in the air, in a sealed metal capsule, flying at over 500 miles per hour. I could be wrong though.

5. An advert for the supermarket Sainsbury’s this time. This is actually a sign in the store. It took me a while to figure out what was wrong with it, especially if you look at the photograph. However, I will type it here anyway:

‘We are amending ours prices following the recent budget changes.’

I guess the people at Sainsbury’s took even longer to figure it out. Say it out loud if you still don’t get it.

6. I think this one is so obscure, it’s a wonder it ever got made. Now, please believe me, this has no reflection on Ho Chi Minh, he was an impressive leader, there is no doubt. However, I must ask why the plaque was put up at all when you actually read it.

‘Ho Chi Minh (1890 – 1969) Founder of modern Vietnam. Worked at the Carlton Hotel in 1913, which stood on this site’

Now, if we had to put up a plaque everywhere that a famous dignitary once worked, they would be everywhere. The fact the Minh worked there in 1913 is pretty obscure, but the fact that the Carlton Hotel is not even there anymore makes it even worse. It’s like saying Minh once bent down a petted a dog outside the New Player Theatre which hadn’t even been built at that time. Make that man a plaque.

7. The one on the transport system, I assume is fake and is a prank, but is a fantastic one nonetheless. The sticker reads:

‘Peak Hours may necessitate that you let other people sit on your lap.’

I really hope that it’s real, but somehow, you know that it would never work in your favour. You would get a thirty stone sewage worker on a packed train point to your crotch and say ‘is that seat taken?’

8. This one is for fun. ‘Ramped Access to Tigers’ sounds like a great band name, but even worse, it faintly sounds like there is a disabled ramp that runs straight into the tiger enclosure. That would be a gladiator battle like you wouldn’t believe.

Thank you for being a part in The Ukiyo,

I am an advertising person.

The Ukiyo

The Ukiyo-e style is not as easy as it looks. And a cheapass mouse doesn’t help. I need a Wacom, and I need one now!

Filter Forge is super! Alright, I haven’t yet gotten around to some serious art-ing with it, but give me time. It’s only been a day since I installed it. I’ve still got 29 days left of the trial period.

The Unsecured Wi-Fi is up again, the minute I decide to call it a day and go to bed. Looks like that isn’t going to happen soon. Oh well. I might as well catch up on Flamingos, Samurai Armor and Mahabharata legends.

Wikipedia, here I come!

[update] The network’s no good. I’m signing off.

Today I went to the 「よみがえる浮世絵　－うるわしき大正新版画」特別展覧会 (Taisho-era Shin-hanga Ukiyo-e Prints Special Exhibit) at the 「江戸東京博物館」 (“Edo-Tokyo Museum“).

I like Japanese 浮世絵 (Ukiyo-e woodblock print) art. I have a few posts about exhibits I’ve seen before (click here to read one I wrote almost exactly twelve months ago).

But this exhibit was different.

Traditional 浮世絵 (woodblock print) art was done from the 江戸時代 (Edo era (17th – mid 19th centuries)) until the 明治時代 (Meiji era (1868 – 1912 (Japan’s modernization period))).

During the 明治時代 (Meiji era), traditional arts such as 浮世絵 (woodblock prints) began losing popularity because they were seen as dated and old-fashioned…and Japan was in a rush to “modernize” during this period.

But, ironically, while Japanese people were losing interest in 浮世絵 (woodblock prints), they were becoming chic and popular in America and Europe during these years.

So during Japan’s 大正時代 (Taisho era (1912 – 1926)) until the first half of the 昭和時代 (Showa era (1926 – 1989), a new, modern style of 浮世絵 (woodblock prints) emerged.
They’re called 「新版画」 (“Shin-hanga“…or “New style prints”).

Due to the popularity of 新版画 (Shin-hanga) in America and Europe during these years, many American and European artists came to Tokyo to learn the art of 新版画 (Shin-hanga) from the “masters”.
So the exhibit that I went to today had art by Japanese 新版画 (Shin-hanga) artists…as well as Japanese-style Shin-hanga prints by American and European artists.
It was very interesting!

Unfortunately after World War II, Japanese society changed alot and now there are very few 浮世絵 (ukiyo-e) or 新版画 (shin-hanga) artists today.

But there is good news, it seems that 新版画 (Shin-hanga) is currently becoming popular again both in Japan and overseas…so maybe more artists will study the craft and keep this tradition alive.

「増上寺の雪」 ("Zojoji Temple in Snow") by Kawase Hasui (昭和２８年 (1953))

「東京タワー」 ("Tokyo Tower") by Kasamatsu Shiro (昭和３４年 (1959))

「両国橋」 ("Ryogoku Bridge") by French artist Noel Nouet (昭和１１年 (1936))

SHUNGA WRAPPED by Bob Kessel
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SHUNGA LICKITY SPLIT by Bob Kessel
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SHUNGA YELLOW MAN by Bob Kessel
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Bob Kessel has created a new art series titled, “SHUNGA” based on Japanese woodblock prints. The pictures are available as limited edition original fine art prints, signed and numbered by the artist. Contact Bob Kessel for prices and availability.

Recently there has been many new pictures added to Bob Kessel’s Shunga art series. It should come as no surprise to anyone that the shunga webpage receives 10 times the hits of any other Bob Kessel art series.

SHUNGA EXPLAINED

Shunga are literally “images of spring.” That is the time of recreation and procreation, the time that inspires man and woman to couple, as if anyone needed an excuse. Shunga appeared prominently in the works of Hokusai, Utamaro, and many other revered woodcut artists.

In the Japan of the 1800’s, the color woodcut print was the most popular artform of the day. The artists of the so-called floating world or ukiyo-e portrayed real life personages and situations as the subject matter for their wood block prints. Ukiyo-e artists created extraordinary portraits of Kabuki Actors, Geisha, Sumo Wrestlers, and other notables, as well as landscapes and architectural views of old Japan. The incredible artistic output of these highly skilled artists left us an accurate view of life in the Japan of yesteryear. There was however another aspect to the art of the ukiyo-e that few Westerners have heard of, that is the art of shunga, or… the Images of Spring.

The production of such images kept most ukiyo-e artists very busy. In fact there were no artists of the time who remained uninvolved with the creation of shunga. The artists of the floating world many times created highly charged sexual imagery, erotic imagery, what Westerners would categorize as “pornographic” pictures.

Ukiyo-e artists created these “Images of Spring” without the slightest notion of embarrassment or shame. There was no stigma attached to the production, sale, or purchase of shunga artworks, in fact the market for such artworks was a lively and lucrative one. Erotic images were not illegal and collections of shunga were sold in book form, called enpon.

This artistic output on the part of Japanese artists had no equivalent in the Western art of that time and illustrates a completely different attitude about sex and morality. The aesthetics of shunga reflected the Japanese view of the body and sex as being part of the natural world, a world that held no concept of original sin.

It was a longstanding tradition that brides of feudal lords bring a collection of shunga to go along with their wedding furniture. There was also a tradition of feudal lords placing shunga in their helmet box whenever they had a new suit of armor made. These customs were a talismanic wish for eternal happiness and many artists made a comfortable living as a result.

The sale of shunga to a high-ranking person would bring enough money to sustain an artist for months, and so many notable, first rate and highly accomplished artists devoted themselves to this unprecedented artform. The level of detail with which ukiyo-e artists portrayed the human body revealed complete familiarity with anatomy and sexuality. Practically speaking the “Images of Spring” also served as a form of sex education for the sons and daughters of the well to do. This type of frank, accurate, and free representation of sexual matters was not to be seen in the West for at least another one hundred and fifty years.

There is limited knowledge of this artform outside of Japan, and in Japan itself shunga is scarcely seen or spoken of these days. However, the aesthetics of shunga still resonate in the contemporary world of certain manga and anime productions. The venerable art of shunga is the root for some modern day Japanese adult comic titles, proving without a doubt that eroticism in contemporary anime and manga is not at all a new phenomenon copied or borrowed from the West.

Those who are well acquainted with Japan’s enormous manga industry should be familiar with the genre of comic known as hentai (or “perverted”). These contemporary publications often focus on explicit “adult” material, but they have a clear artistic connection to the past in that their themes can be traced back to shunga. Shunga artworks are much more than mere “dirty pictures.”

The prints are of considerable artistry and cultural importance. In fact quite a few prestigious art museums around the world, especially in Japan, have collections of the highly prized risque prints (though they are not generally on public display).

Some scenes portrayed in shunga prints involve tender courting and romance, with all the attendant trappings of flirtation. Many of the prints offer scenes that leave nothing to the imagination. Couples are pictured in states of partial undress, in the throes of passionate lovemaking, utilizing a variety of positions and techniques.

There are even prints that depict lovely young ladies pleasuring themselves, a sight nearly totally absent from the annals of Western art! Whatever the sensual delights portrayed, the prints always manage to do so with sophistication and a certain elegance. Shunga prints are one of the overlooked treasures of traditional Japanese fine art. The “Images of Spring” should be properly recognized as high art, and at the same time preserved and studied for being one of the world’s greatest graphic art forms.

LAMP by Bob Kessel from SHUNGA art series

Bob Kessel has created a new art series titled, “SHUNGA” based on Japanese woodblock prints. Shunga (春画) is a Japanese term for erotic art. Most shunga are a type of ukiyo-e, usually executed in woodblock print format. While rare, there are extant erotic painted handscrolls which predate the Ukiyo-e movement. Translated literally, the Japanese word shunga means picture of spring; “spring” is a common euphemism for sex. In the Edo period it was enjoyed by rich and poor, men and women, and despite being out of favour with the shogunate, carried very little stigma. Almost all ukiyo-e artists made shunga at some point in their careers, including Hokusai, Utamaro, Harunobu, Eisen, Saeshi, Shigenobu, Issho and Moronobu, and it did not detract from their prestige as artists.

The pictures are available as limited edition original fine art prints, signed and numbered by the artist.
Contact Bob Kessel for prices and availability.

Recently there has been many new pictures added to Bob Kessel’s Shunga art series. It should come as no surprise to anyone that the shunga webpage receives 10 times the hits of any other Bob Kessel art series.

STARS & STRIPES

SHUNGA STARS by Bob Kessel

SHUNGA STRIPES by Bob Kessel

1. Cahokia. (The Mocama were on the fringes of this great Pre-Columbian civilization. Today we’ve got St. Louis & Jacksonville.)

Cahokia (pronounced /kəˈhoʊki.ə/) is the site of an ancient indigenous city (650–1400 CE) near Collinsville, Illinois. In the American Bottom floodplain, it is across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri. The 2,200-acre (8.9 km²) site included 120 man-made earthen mounds over an area of six square miles, although only 80 survive.^[1] Cahokia Mounds is the largest archaeological site related to the Mississippian culture, which developed advanced societies in eastern North America centuries before the arrival of Europeans.^[2]

2. Street Cars. America’s “love affair” with the automobile started here. See also Stockholm Syndrome.

The Great American streetcar scandal (also known as the General Motors streetcar conspiracy and the National City Lines conspiracy) is a conspiracy in which streetcar systems throughout the United States were dismantled and replaced with buses in the mid-20th century as a result of illegal actions by a number of prominent companies, acting through National City Lines (NCL), Pacific City Lines (on the West Coast, starting in 1938), and American City Lines (in large cities, starting in 1943).

National, which had been in operation since 1920, was organized into a holding company, and General Motors, Firestone Tire, Standard Oil of California, Phillips Petroleum, Mack, and the Federal Engineering Corporation made investments in the City Lines companies in return for exclusive supply contracts.^[1] Between 1936 and 1950, National City Lines bought out more than 100 electric surface-traction systems in 45 cities,^[2] including Detroit, New York City, Oakland, Philadelphia, Phoenix, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Tulsa, Baltimore, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles, and replaced them with GM buses. American City Lines merged with National in 1946.^[1]

View more.

3. Ukiy0-e. If you missed it, check out Weekend East I and II for a visualization.

Ukiyo-e (浮世絵, lit. “pictures of the floating world”^?) (Japanese pronunciation: [ukijo.e] or [ukijoꜜe]) is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints (or woodcuts) and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters. It is the main artistic genre of woodblock printing in Japan.

Usually the word ukiyo is literally translated as “floating world” in English, referring to a conception of an evanescent world, impermanent, fleeting beauty and a realm of entertainments (kabuki, courtesans, geisha) divorced from the responsibilities of the mundane, everyday world; “pictures of the floating world”, i.e. ukiyo-e, are considered a genre unto themselves.

Des créations co-signées FST Handwear et Mary Beyer sous les arcades du Palais Royal

Au delà des différences de positionnement, de cultures personnelles, de générations ou encore de style, FST Handwear et Mary Beyer imaginent main dans la main (gantée !) une collection pour l’hiver 2010.

Conçus dans les ateliers Lavabre Cadet (de Mary Beyer), gage d’une qualité exceptionnelle, cinq modèles voient le jour – dont quatre pour ces dames et un pour la gente masculine. Parmi eux rayonne la pièce préférée de la mini-série : La OBI.

Elle porte le nom de la ceinture de soie nouée à la taille des kimonos traditionnels japonais et s’habille d’un patchwork d’estampes nipponnes réalisées à l’encre à l’eau (protectrice de l’environnement). En peau de chevreau (élevage français) et maille technique doublée en micro fibres (labellisée Confiance textile), sa fabrication est française. Ses détails jouent le raffinement.

Mais si la OBI fait office de favorite, le modèle Samouraï détonne aussi par sa force de caractère.

La collection est à découvrir d’urgence jeudi 8 octobre et vendredi 9 octobre 2009 sous les arcades du Palais Royal, 32-33 Galerie Montpensier à Paris, en présence des créateurs : Mary Beyer, et le dynamique tandem à l’origine de FST Handwear, Benjamin Cuier et Philippe Largueze.

Par Julie Mangaud

© 2009 FashionMag.com

Aussi légère et soudaine qu’une éclosion de fleur de cerisier, cette mini collection est le fruit d’une collaboration inédite entre deux maisons gantières que tout semblait opposer.

Au-delà des clivages luxe / prêt à porter,au-delà des conflits entre deux régions de tradition gantière, au-delà des cultures personnelles de chacun des créateurs, au-delà des générations, au-delà des styles…Ukiyo-e , littéralement “images du monde fluctuant“ en japonais, prouve que tout peut arriver, que tout doit changer…dans un seul but : créer.

L’association FST HANDWEAR by MARY BEYER est en cela inédite que deux maisons gantières ne se sont jamais associées pour créer une collection commune.

Cette mini collection Hiver 2010 s’organise autour de quatre modèles femmes et un modèle Homme. L’univers esthétique est transversal mais les coupes changent afin d’offrir un large éventail de style (8 boutons, classique, manchette, etc…) Ces gants allient matières nobles et modernes pour une confection de haute qualité, réalisée dans les célèbres ateliers de MARY BEYER : Lavabre Cadet.

Art from the opening of the Yokohama Port from the Tokugawa to the Meiji eras …

The exhibition traces the chaotic times around the opening of Japanese ports and aims to identify continuities and changes from the Edo to the Meiji period.   This is done through artifacts and historical documents.  The items that will be on display will be Ukiyo-e (Japanese genre pictures) photography and other historical materials that depict Western visitors to Japan and Japanese visitors abroad; ceramics and lacquer-ware that was exported to the Western markets; and Western-style paintings by Japanese artists.

Sept.19 – Nov.23 Open:  10:00 – 18:00 (closed on Thursdays)

Yokohama Museum of Art  Tel: 045-221-0300

3-4-1, Minatomirai-Nishi-ku