16/11/2014

Orimoto Kakyo

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Orimoto Kakyoo 織本花嬌 Orimoto Kakyo
(1736 - 1741)

Born in Nishikawamura (now Futtsu) 旧西川村(現在富津市西川) father was 小柴庄左衛門.
Married to the headman of 旧富津村, 織本嘉右衛門 Orimoto san.
Her haikai name was 対潮庵 Taicho-An.
Her husband's haikai name was 砂明 Samyo.
Her brother's haikai name was also Samyo.
Both were priests at the temple 金華山華蔵院 Keso-In in Kanaya.
This temple is Nr. 13 at the pilgrimage to 33 Kannon Temples in Kazusa, Chiba.新上総国三十三観音札所


She was friends with Kobayashi Issa, 雪中庵蓼太 (大島蓼太 Oshima Ryota) and other haijin of her times.

In February of 1798, she had a memorial stone for Matsuo Basho placed at 鹿野山神野寺 Jinja-Ji.
最中の桃のなかより初さくら

On the 2nd day of the 7th lunar month in 1804, Issa came to Kisarazu and then to 富津 Futtsu in Chiba.
Issa wrote

秋立や身はならはしのよ所[の]窓
aki tatsu ya

On the 6th day of the 2nd lunar month in 1808, Issa sent a letter to Kakyo:

On the third day of the fourth lunar month in 1802, Hakyo died.
Her grave is at the temple 普戴山大乗寺 Daijo-Ji in Futtsu.

On the 13thd ay of the 7th lunar month, Issa visited her grave and later the Orimoto family, where he stayed for a while.


艸花やいふもかたるも秋の風

蕣(あさがお)の花もきのふのきのふ哉



- - - Poems by Kakyo 花嬌の句

袷着て白き扇子のはつ音哉
『蕉翁百回追遠集』

鳥遊べ初手の時雨ハ木隠るゝ
『遠ほととぎす』

冬枯や中(仲)よく見ゆる三軒家
『名なし草紙』

庵の夜をくるりくるりと螢かな
『世美冢』

春風や女ぢからの鍬にまで
『三韓人』

名月や乳房くはへて指して
『たねおろし』


- reference : members.jcom.home.ne.jp/michiko328

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今来たと顔を並べる乙鳥哉
ima kita to kao o naraberu tsubame kana

lining up
with newcomers' faces...
swallows

David Lanoue

Mrs. Kakyo Orimoto was Kobayhashi Issa’s haiku student as well as reliable sponsor.
1810 July she died, he knew it but couldn’t attend her funeral ceremony.
After two years on her memorial day, he came to her tomb to pray for her soul.

- source : Nakamura Sakuo


. Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 in Edo .


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a girl welcomes her grandmother's returning soul --

赤紐の草履も見ゆる秋の夕
aka-himo no zoori mo miyuru aki no yuu

autumn evening --
sandals appear
with red thongs


This hokku is from lunar 7/13 (August 12) in 1810, the hundredth day after the death of Orimoto Kakyou (織本花嬌, hereafter Kakyo), a well-known haikai poet married to a village headman in the area east of Edo. She was one of Issa's most enthusiastic and talented supporters, and Issa must have been deeply grieved when he learned she had died on 4/3. He was traveling at the time, but later he took a boat east across Edo Bay and attended the important hundredth-day requiem service for her at Daijoji, a Buddhist temple of the Pure Land school founded by Honen. On the hundredth day a soul was believed to become a "Buddha," since it had decisively left this world and had entered the other, where it was now on its way to liberation or to the Pure Land.

This hokku is the third Issa wrote on the day of the Buddhist requiem service for Kakyo. It is thought to refer to Kakyo's granddaughter, a budding haikai poet who was being tutored by Kakyo. The age of neither Kakyo nor her granddaughter in 1810 is known, but the granddaughter must have been fairly young, since she is still wearing sandals with red thongs. In the midst of all the dark colors no doubt worn by the other people at the service, Issa seems to regard the granddaughter's red sandal thongs to be a small but strong assertion of the power of life and rebirth. Issa had no doubt met the granddaughter earlier when he visited Kakyo's house to lead haikai meetings there, so he may take the red thongs, which seem to stand out in the dim lantern light, to be a sign that Kakyo's creative spirit still lives on in the haikai and the flamboyant assertion of color by her protege, her granddaughter.

In once sense the red sandal thongs may literally refer to Kakyo's return to this world. The headnote, the red color, and the night setting all seem to indicate that this hokku is not about the requiem service but about a later ceremony that evening to welcome Kakyo's soul back to the world of the living. The date of the requiem for Kakyo happens to be the day before the beginning of the very important half-Buddhist, half-shamanic Bon Festival of Returning Souls held on lunar 7/14-16, that is, at the time of the first autumn full moon. It is an evening on which almost all families, especially those with a death during the previous year, pray to the souls of their loved ones, welcoming them and asking them to return and spend the next three days with them.

To welcome the souls, relatives carry lanterns from their houses to the person's grave, and there they place at least one lantern to show the soul the location of the grave. After making welcoming prayers, each family, still carrying lanterns, guides the soul back to its former house. Similar ceremonies are carried out at graves at the end of the festival, when visiting souls are sent off on the evening of lunar 7/16. Kakyo's grave is in Daijoji Temple, where the requiem was held earlier in the day, so lanterns would probably be placed near her grave while relatives and friends welcome her returning soul, which has only recently entered the other world. The red worn by Kakyo's granddaughter may literally seem to Issa to indicate the color of life, and he may believe with others at the grave that Kakyo's soul is alive and temporarily among them once more. Could Issa be seeing a double vision of Kakyo's granddaughter and of the young Kakyo herself, once more young? That would explain why he stresses "visible" or "appears."

Kakyou's husband died in 1794, and she did not remarry, but as the widow of a powerful village headman, she could not have felt free to have affairs with other men. In spite of the class distance between Kakyo and the lowly Issa, however, many commentators are fond of stating that Issa must have deeply but platonically loved the older Kakyo, who became his secret love throughout his life. There is no evidence to either support or disprove this perennial theory, and Issa's main requiem hokku for Kakyo, also written on 7/13 and placed two verses before the above hokku in his diary, is supremely ambiguous:

wildflowers,
what you say and tell --
autumn wind


kusabana ya iu mo kataru mo aki no kaze

The haikai name Kakyo means Beauty of Flowers (or Floral Beauty), so Issa seems to be addressing both the autumn flowers of the fields around him and Kakyo's soul. Of course the wildflowers also suggest Issa -- as well as an imagistic overlap of Issa with Kakyo -- so Issa may be indirectly identifying himself with Kakyo here. Autumn wind is traditionally a sad and lonely image, and even the flowers now speak its language, though they may be saying other things as well which will never be explicitly uttered.



source : kyoto-brand.co
An image of Rokuharamitsuji Temple in Kyoto, with soul-welcoming fires and a statue of the merciful bodhisattva Kannon




source : blog-imgs-36-origin.fc2.com/h/a/n/hanpei
Fires lighting the way for souls from a graveyard to a village



source : blog-imgs-35.fc2.com/k/h/s/khsjapan
Soul-welcoming fires at individual houses

Chris Drake

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- Reference - Japanese -


. Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets .

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05/11/2014

Toyama Kagemoto

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Tooyama 遠山景元 Toyama Saemon no Jo Kagemoto
(1793 – 1855)
生誕 寛政5年8月23日(1793年9月27日)
死没 安政2年2月29日(1855年4月15日)
(September 27, 1793 – April 15, 1855)



Tōyama Kagemoto (遠山景元) Kinshiro 金四郎
a hatamoto and an official of the Tokugawa Shogunate during the Edo Period of Japanese history. His ancestry was of the Minamoto clan of Mino Province. His father, Kagemichi 遠山景晋, was the magistrate of Nagasaki.
Kagemoto held the posts of Finance Magistrate, North Magistrate, and subsequently the South Magistrate of Edo. (The magistrates of Edo acted as chiefs of the police and fire departments and as judges in criminal and civil matters.)

(Edo machibugyoo, machi bugyoo 町奉行 magistrate of Edo)

As North Magistrate, his opposition to South Magistrate Torii Yōzō and Rōjū Mizuno Tadakuni won him popularity. In 1843, he was ousted from his position as North Magistrate through the machinations of Torii, and although nominally appointed Ōmetsuke, was out of power. Two years later, when Mizuno ousted Torii, Tōyama received an appointment as South Magistrate, a post once held by Ōoka Tadasuke.

Tōyama's rose to the Lower Junior Fifth rank with the name Tōyama Saemon no Jō Saemonnojo.
© More in the WIKIPEDIA !




His father had adopted another boy of the family for his heir, so Kinshiro in his youth had no prospects for a good future and spent a lot of time in the pleasure quarters of Edo.
During that time he might have acquired some tatoo like the men of the city used to favor.
Only when the family heir died at an early age Kagemoto became the head of the family and started his career as a governor of Edo.

When his superior Mizuno tried to relocate the three Kabuki theaters to a far-away location, Toyama intervened on behalf of the people, since Kabuki was one of their few leisure activities at that time in Edo.

His real fame came later, when the Kabuki world was paying him back for his benevolence with a play in the Meiji area and the kodan story tellers took up the subject.
And with the advent of TV series and movies, he became a real star in Japan.

His grave at temple Honmyo-Ji in Tokyo
遠山金四郎景元の墓 - (東京都豊島区巣鴨五丁目・本妙寺)


- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !


. 江戸の名奉行 Famous Bugyo Magistrates from Edo .


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Three leisure acitivites in Edo
Sumo, Kabuki and the Pleasure quarters - having a drink together

遠山金四郎 - 誰も知らなかった桜吹雪

江戸の三代娯楽(相撲、歌舞伎、吉原)を描いた勝川春好の錦絵



- source : おおえど.com


. Edo Sanza 江戸三座
the three famous Kabuki theaters of Edo .

with a special permission from the city government (町奉行 machi bugyoo).

堺町・葺屋町 Sakai Machi
木挽町 Kobiki choo
猿若町 Saruwaka choo. later renamed Nakamura-za


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CLICK for more photos of the actors !

Tōyama no Kin-san (遠山の金さん)
is a popular character based on the historical Tōyama Kagemoto, a samurai and official of the Tokugawa Shogunate during the Edo Period of Japanese history. In kabuki and kōdan, he was celebrated under his childhood name, Kinshirō, shortened to Kin-san. He was said to have left home as a young man, and lived among the commoners, even having a tattoo of flowering sakura trees on his shoulder. This story developed into a legend of helping the common people.

The novelist Tatsurō Jinde (陣出達郎) wrote a series of books about Kin-san. Noted actor Chiezō Kataoka starred in a series of eight Toei jidaigeki films about him. Several Japanese television networks have aired series based on the character. These variously portrayed him pretending to be a petty hood or a yojimbo samurai while solving crimes as the chief of police.

People famous for having portrayed Kin-san on television include kabuki stars Nakamura Umenosuke IV and Ichikawa Danshirō, singers Yukio Hashi and Teruhiko Saigō, and actors Ryōtarō Sugi, Hideki Takahashi, Hiroki Matsukata, and Kōtarō Satomi.
Saigō and Satomi portrayed Kin-san in the series Edo o Kiru.
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !


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Edo o Kiru 江戸を斬る Slashing Edo



a popular jidaigeki on Japan's Tokyo Broadcasting System.
During the decades from its September 24, 1973 premiere until the July 25, 1994 finale, 214 episodes aired. It lasted through eight series, with several casts and settings. It ran on Monday evenings in the 8:00 – 8:54 prime time slot, sponsored by National, and remains popular in reruns.

The first series featured popular actor Takewaki Muga, a co-star in the network's program Ōoka Echizen, which alternated with Edo o Kiru in the same time slot. He played Hoshina Masayuki, half-brother of shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu, masquerading as Azusa Ukon in a good-over-evil drama set in Edo. Also on the cast was Matsuzaka Keiko, who continued in the next several versions of the show.

Versions two through six starred the popular actor/singer Saigo Teruhiko in the role of Toyama Kagemoto, or Tōyama no Kin-san, a samurai who lived among the commoners, to the point of having a huge sakura tattoo drawn on his shoulder, but later became chief administrator of Edo. In this version of the Kin-san story (which has been the subject of several other series), Kinshiro lived in the house of the woman who had been his nursemaid (played by Masumi Harukawa, later O-Sai of Abarenbo Shogun), the proprietor of a fish-dealer. O-Yuki (Keiko Matsuzaka), pretending to be her daughter, is actually a daughter of Tokugawa Nariaki, daimyo of the Mito domain, and eventually marries Kin-san.
Wearing a purple cloth over her head and face, and wielding a sword in the Yagyū Shinkage-ryū manner, she works outside the law to bring justice to the wicked. At her right hand is an employee at the shop, Jirokichi (kabuki actor Matsuyama Eitaro, 1942–1991). The former Robin Hood-style thief Nezumi Kozō, he became an undercover agent for the Kin-san/O-Yuki team.
Morishige Hisaya (1913– ) played Nariaki in special guest appearances.

A major cast change brought veteran jidaigeki actor Kōtarō Satomi to the lead role, again as Kin-san, for the seventh and eighth series.
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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- Reference - Japanese -

- Reference - English -


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01/11/2014

Kaba Motoki

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. shikki 漆器 laquerware, laquer ware - Lackarbeiten .
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Kaba Motoki 加波基樹

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He works with Wajima laquer and keeps a store in the 4th generation.
加波次吉漆器店4代目 加波 基樹

明治年間、初代加波次吉が塗師屋(ぬしや)を起こしました。
塗師屋という聞き慣れない言葉は、実際に漆器を作る職人としての仕事だけにとどまらず、販売までを行う人やお店のことを指します。



当時の加波次吉漆器店は、輪島では1・2を争う隆盛を誇り、多くの蔵を有していましたが、のちの後継者が塗師屋ではなく職人として活動したため、塗師屋としての姿を消してしまったのです。
私は現在4代目として、先代である父に職人として師事しながらも、初代のような『職人が切り盛りする塗師屋』として、製造から販売までを一貫して行っています。一度は途絶えてしまった先代の名を守りながら、新しい漆の可能性を日々模索しています。「塗れるものなら何でも塗る」のポリシーのもと、異業種や新素材とのコラボレーションを積極的に行っています。苦労はありますが幸せな毎日を送っています。
- source : www.butuzou-world-shop.com


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- Look at more of his work :
- source : www.jikichi.jp

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source : 仏像ワールド -


. Fudō Myō-ō, Fudoo Myoo-Oo 不動明王 Fudo Myo-O
Acala Vidyârâja - Vidyaraja - Fudo Myoo .



. Mingei 民芸 Folk Art from Japan . 


. Japanese Aesthetics エスセティクス - Nihon no bigaku 日本の美学 .


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- Reference - Japanese -

- Reference - English -

. shikki 漆器 laquerware, laquer ware - Lackarbeiten .

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- #kabamotoki #motokikaba #urushilaquer -
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31/10/2014

Tokugawa Iemitsu

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Tokugawa Iemitsu 徳川家光 Third Shogun
sometimes spelled Iyemitsu, Iyémitsŭ,

(August 12, 1604 – June 8, 1651)
and in office 1623 – 1651


- quote
the third shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Iemitsu ruled from 1623 to 1651.
... his childhood name was Takechiyo (竹千代).
his younger brother was Tokugawa Tadanaga - However, Ieyasu made it clear that Iemitsu would be next in line as shogun after Hidetada.
In 1623, when Iemitsu was nineteen, Hidetada abdicated the post of shogun in his favor. Hidetada continued to rule as Ōgosho (retired Shogun), but Iemitsu nevertheless assumed a role as formal head of the bakufu government.
© More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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Utsunomiya Tsuritenjo Jiken 宇都宮 釣天井事件 The Ceiling at Utsunomiya


source : nifty.com/oracleasuka
Now even the subject of a senbei rice cracker.


- quote
AN ARTIST'S LETTERS FROM JAPAN - BY JOHN LA FARGE (1835 – 1910)

Near Utsunomiya, August 30, 1886
I recall a little story of Utsunomiya, connected with my associations of Nikko, which I shall try to tell you; though, at the very start, I find a difficulty in my having heard it told in several different and contradictory ways—and I can only travel one at a time. As I shall tell it, it represents a legend believed at least in the theater, which, as we know, everywhere makes a kind of history.

The story is about the shogun Iyémitsŭ, whose temple, you know, is at Nikko, and who was near missing the honor of being divinized there later, owing to a plot arranged by his enemies, the scene of which was this little town of Utsunomiya. At that time he was but a boy, the heir-apparent, and was on his way to Nikko, as was his official duty, to worship at the tomb of his grandfather Iyéyasŭ, lately deceased. In this story Iyémitsŭ is not in the legitimate line of descent, but is made the heir by the decision of the great Iyéyasŭ.

His father, Hidetada, was shogun, as you know, having succeeded Iyéyasŭ, during the latter's lifetime,—the old man remaining in reality the master, though absolved from external responsibilities. Now, Hidetada's wife was of the family of Nobunaga, on her mother's side—and bore him a son, who was named during his childhood Kuni Matsu. Another son, whose boy name was Take Chiyo, was the son of Kasuga No Tsubone, a remarkable woman. Each son had tutors, people of importance, and around each boy gathered a number of ambitious interests, all the fiercer that they were dissembled and depended for success upon the choice of either heir as shogun, to succeed father and grandfather. The claim of the other son was favored by the father and more generally accepted; but the son of Kasuga was superior in looks, manners, and intelligence, and his mother hoped to influence in his favor old Iyéyasŭ, the grandfather.

Iyéyasŭ was then living in retirement at Sunpu, that is now called Shidzuoka, which is on the road called the Tokaido.

Kasuga took advantage of a pilgrimage to the shrines of Ise to stop on her road, and naturally offer homage to the head of the family, the grandfather of her son. Besides the power of her own personality, she was able to place before Iyéyasŭ very strong arguments for choosing as the heir of the line a youth as promising as her Take Chiyo.

Iyéyasŭ advised her to continue her pilgrimage, and not to go out of her woman's business, which could not be that of interfering with questions of state; and she obeyed. But Iyéyasŭ revolved the entire question in his mind, and decided that there was danger in a delay that allowed both parties to grow stronger in antagonism. So that he came at once to Yedo, which is now Tokio, and visited Hidetada, asking to see both the boys together. They came in along with their father and his wife, and took their accustomed places. Now these were on the higher floor, raised by a few inches from the floor on which kneels the visitor of lower degree, in the presence of his superior: a line of black lacquer edges the division. Thereupon Iyéyasŭ taking the boy Take Chiyo by the hand, made him sit by him, and alongside of his father, and ordered the other son, Kuni Matsu, to sit below the line, and said:
"The State will come to harm if the boys are allowed to grow up in the idea of equal rank.
Therefore, Take Chiyo shall be shogun, and Kuni Matsu a daimio
."
This decision gave to the line of the Tokugawa a brilliant and powerful continuity, for Take Chiyo, under his manhood name of Iyémitsŭ, was as an Augustus to the Cæsar Iyéyasŭ. And, indeed, Iyéyasŭ had certainly made sufficient inquiries to warrant his decision. If he consulted the abbot Tenkai, of Nikko, who was a preceptor of the boy, he must have heard favorably of him. For, according to the judgment of Tenkai, as I find it quoted elsewhere, "Iyémitsŭ was very shrewd and of great foresight," and in his presence the great abbot felt, he said, "as if thorns were pricking his back."

Not but that he was also fond of luxury and splendor; and one glimpse of him as a youth shows a quarrel with a tutor who found him dressing himself, or being dressed, for "No" performances, or "private theatricals," and who proceeded thereupon to throw away the double mirrors,—in which the youth followed his hair-dresser's arrangements,—with the usual, classical rebuke, condemning such arrangements as unworthy of a ruler of Japan.

There are many stories of Iyémitsŭ more or less to his advantage—and a little anecdote shows a young man of quick temper, as well as one who insisted upon proper attendance.

Iyémitsŭ had been hawking in a strong wind, and with no success. Tired and hungry, he went with some lord-in-waiting to a neighboring temple, where lunch was prepared for them by his cook,—a man of rank. Iyémitsŭ, while taking his soup in a hurry, crushed a little stone between his teeth; whereupon he immediately insisted upon the cook's committing suicide. The cook being a gentleman, a man of affairs, not a mere artist like poor Vatel, hesitated, and then said:
"No soup made by me ever had stones or pebbles in it; otherwise I should gladly kill myself: you gentlemen have begun dinner at once without washing hands or changing dress, and some pebble has dropped into the soup from your hair or clothes. If after having washed your hands and changed your dress, you find any stones in the soup, I shall kill myself."
Whereupon Iyémitsŭ did as was suggested by the cook, repented of his own severity, and increased the cook's pay. But the tutor and guardians of Iyémitsŭ watched over him carefully, and the story I had begun to tell shows that they had no sinecure.

The tutors and guardians of the brother, whom Iyéyasŭ had decided to put aside in favor of Iyémitsŭ, were naturally deeply aggrieved and sought for chances to regain their ward's future power and their own.

As my story began, Iyémitsŭ, representing the hereditary shogunate, was called upon to travel to Nikko and worship officially at his grandfather's tomb. On his way it was natural that he should rest as we did, at Utsunomiya, and in the castle of his vassal, Honda, who was one of the tutors of his brother. This was the son  of the great Honda Masanobu, of whom I spoke above as a champion of Iyéyasŭ.

Here was an opportunity; and a scheme of getting rid of the young shogun was devised by his enemies that seemed to them sufficiently obscure to shield them in case of success or failure, at least for a time. This was, to have a movable ceiling made to the bath-room weighted in such a way as to fall upon any one in the bath and crush him. Whether it was to be lifted again, and leave him drowned in his bath, or to remain as an accident from faulty construction, I do not know.

To build this machine, ten carpenters were set to work within the castle and kept jealously secluded,—even when the work was done, for the young shogun delayed his coming. The confinement fretted the men, among whom was a young lover, anxious to get back to his sweetheart, and not to be satisfied with the good food and drink provided to appease him. He told of his longings to the gatekeeper, whose duty it was to keep him imprisoned, bribed him with his own handsome pay and promise of a punctual return, and at last managed to get out and be happy for a few moments. The girl of his love was inquisitive, but reassured by explanation that the work was done, and that he should soon be out again; yet not before the shogun should have come and gone on his way to Nikko. And so he returned to the gatekeeper at the time appointed. Meanwhile, during that very night, the officers of the castle had gone their rounds and found one man absent. In the morning the roll-call was full. This was reported to the lord of the castle, who decided that if he could not know who it was that had been absent it was wise to silence them all. Therefore, each was called to be paid and dismissed, and, as he stepped out, was beheaded. The gatekeeper, getting wind of what was happening and  fearing punishment, ran away, and being asked by the girl about her lover, told her what he knew and that he believed all the carpenters to have been killed.

Since her lover was dead, she determined to die also, having been the cause of his death and of the death of his companions. She wrote out all this, together with what her lover had told her of his belief and suspicions, and left the letter for her father and mother, who received it along with the tidings of her suicide. The father, in an agony of distress and fear, for there was danger to the whole family from every side, made up his mind to stop the shogun at all hazards, and in the depth of the night made his way to Ishibashi, where one of the princes had preceded Iyémitsŭ, who was to pass the night still further back on the road.

Here there was difficulty about getting a private interview with so great a man as this prince, whose name you will remember as being the title of the former owner of our friend's house in Nikko: Ii, Kammon no Kami.

The letter was shown to Ii, who despatched two messengers, gentlemen of his own, one back to Yedo, to see to the safety of the castle there; the other one to Iyémitsŭ, but by a circuitous route, so that he might appear to have come the other way. The letter was to the effect that the young shogun's father was very ill and desired his son's immediate return. By the time that Iyémitsŭ could get into his litter, Ii had arrived and shown him the girl's letter. Then the occupants of the litters were changed, Matsudaira taking Iyémitsŭ's norimono and Iyémitsŭ Matsudaira's. This, of course, was to give another chance of escape in case of sudden attack by a larger force, for they were now in enemy's country and did not know what traps might be laid for them. The bearers of the palanquin pressed through the night, so that, leaving at midnight, they arrived at Yedo the following  evening; but the strain had been so great that they could go no further.

There was still the fear of attack, and among the retinue one very strong man, Matsudaira Ishikawa, carried the litter of the prince himself. But the gates were closed, and the guards refused to recognize the unknown litter as that of the shogun; nor would they, fearing treachery, open when told that Iyémitsŭ had returned. Delays ensued, but at last admission was obtained for Iyémitsŭ through a wicket gate—and he was safe. Later, after cautious delays, the guilty were punished, and I hope the family of the carpenter's love escaped. When I first read the story, years ago, the version was different, and there was some arrangement of it, more romantic—with some circumstances through which the young carpenter and his sweetheart escaped, and alone the father, innocent of harm, committed suicide.

- - - snip

That lady in the story just given you, where she is the mother of Iyémitsŭ and the concubine of his father, the shogun, was a very different person.

Little Iyémitsŭ was the legitimate son; moreover, the one who by date of birth was the probable heir, notwithstanding the preference shown by his father and his mother, Sogenin, for his younger brother. So that the succession was decided abruptly by the stern head of the family, Iyéyasŭ.

Great attention was paid by the grandfather, the great Iyéyasŭ, to the education of this grandson. As a Japanese friend remarked, he believed that the important place in the generation was that of the third man. So that three distinguished noblemen were appointed his governors: Sakai, to teach benevolence; Doi, to teach wisdom; Awoyama, to teach valor.
Besides these great professors for the future, the little boy needed an immediate training by a governess good in every way. Kasuga, a married woman, the daughter of a well-known warrior of imperial descent who had lost his life in some conspiracy of the previous generation, was chosen by [Pg 213] the government for the position. This was, perhaps, as great an honor as could be offered to any lady. Besides, there was an opportunity to clear the memory of her father. And she begged her husband to divorce her that she might be free to give all her life to this task. So devoted was she that the boy being at one time at the point of death, she offered herself to the gods for his recovery, vowing never to take any remedy. In her last illness she refused all medicine, and even when Iyémitsŭ—now ruler—begged her to take a commended draught from his hand, she merely, out of politeness, allowed it to moisten her lips, saying that her work was done, that she was ready to die, and that her life had long ago been offered for the master. Nor would she allow the master to indulge her with regard to her own son. He was in exile, deservedly, and the shogun asked her permission to pardon him, in the belief of possible amendment. She refused, bidding Iyémitsŭ to remember his lesson: that the law of the country was above all things, and that she had never expected such words from him. Moreover, that had he revoked the law for her, she could not die in peace.
There is a Spartan politeness in all this, for which I think the stories worth saving to you.
- source : www.gutenberg.org

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At Imamiya shrine 今宮神社 , you can get unique charms or talismans. One of them is the
tamanokoshi (marry into the purple) charm 玉の輿お守り.
It is a vivid navy blue and printed with the designs of Kyoto vegetables.


This charm is derived from an old story:

Tokugawa Iemitsu (1604-51), the 3rd Edo shogun, fell in love with a beautiful girl named Otama, who was born in Kyoto’s Nishijin weaving district as the daughter of a greengrocer. Iemitsu took Otama as a concubine and she bore him a son, who later became the 5th Edo shogun, Tokugawa Ietsuna.
In 1651, when Iemitsu died, Otama became a Buddhist nun under the name Keishoin. She had kept Nishijin in mind even after achieving a high status, and she seems to have exerted herself to build a temple, revive the Yasurai Matsuri (which had been suspended), and support Nishijin after she heard of the ruin of Imamiya Shrine.
The guardian gods of Nishijin also protect Imamiya Shrine, so people wished for the prosperity of the Nishijin area. Local residents say that the word “tamanokoshi” can be traced back to Otama’s story, and anyone who wants to become a “Cinderella”, or simply be happy, can visit this shrine to buy this charm.
source : www.kyopro.kufs.ac.jp

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. Sanpooji 三寶寺 / 三宝寺 Sanpo-Ji - Nerima .

The third Shogun, 将軍家光 Tokugawa Iemitsu, often passed here during his falcon hunting and a special gate was constructed later for him to go through, 御成門 Onari-Mon, now the oldest existing building in the temple complex.

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reimuzoo 霊夢像 Reimuzo, Oracle Dream Image
When Iemitsu was ill later in his life, he had dreams of Ieyasu.
He orderd the painter Kano Tan'yū to create an image after his dream vision.
37 of these dreams are well documented. “dream” portraits.



. . . CLICK here for more Photos !



Visions of the Dead: Kano Tan'yū's Paintings of Tokugawa Iemitsu's Dreams
Karen M. Gerhart / Monumenta Nipponica 2004
- source : www.jstor.org -

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. Kasuga no Tsubone 春日局 Lady Kasuga . - (1597 - 1643)

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24/10/2014

Huish Marcus

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Huish Marcus Bourne Huish
(1843- 1904)

Author of “Japan and its Art”
Chairman of the British Japan Society



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Marcus Bourne Huish

Nationality: English
Date of Birth: 1843.11.25
Place of Birth: Castle Donington
Date of Death: 1921.05.04
Place of Death: 21 Essex Villas, Kensington, London

- - - Identity:
Marcus Bourne Huish was a barrister, writer and art dealer, the son of Marcus Huish of Castle Donington, Leicestershire. He married Catherine Sarah Winslow. Their daughter Margaret Dorothy Huish was born in 1879.

- - - Life:

Husih was called to the bar in 1867 but seems to have abandoned his legal career for the art trade. From 1879-1911 he was Director of the Fine Art Society, with Ernest Brown as his assistant manager. For 12 years he was also editor of Art Journal. In September 1879, after JW's bankruptcy, the Fine Art Society commissioned JW to travel to Venice to complete twelve etchings. JW stayed for over a year, making fifty etchings and over ninety pastels.

On JW's return in 1880, he rented rooms at 65 Regent Street from the Society to print the Venice etchings, twelve of which were exhibited in December at Etchings of Venice, The Fine Art Society, London, 1880. Fifty-three pastels were exhibited the next year, at Venice Pastels, The Fine Art Society, London, 1881. The private view of Mr Whistler's Etchings, The Fine Art Society, London, 1883, was accompanied by a catalogue, wherein each entry was followed by a quotation from earlier criticisms. In 1895, JW held an exhibition of lithographs at the Society (Mr Whistler's Lithographs, The Fine Art Society, London, 1895).

Huish was himself a watercolourist and the chairman of the Japan Society.
He was a Chevalier of the Order of the Sacred Treasure, and was made a Knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy for his part in organising the British section at the Venice Biennale.
The Huishes lived at 21 Essex Villas, Kensington.
- source : www.whistler.arts.gla.ac.uk


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Samplers and Tapestry Embroideries
by Marcus Bourne Huish
Author of “Japan and its Art,”
...
. . .It is true that recent International Exhibitions have included some marvellous specimens of adroitness in needlework, such, for instance, as the wonders from Japan; but these tours de force, and even the skilled productions from English schools, as, for instance, “The Royal School of Art Needlework,” and which endeavour fitfully to stir up the dying embers of what was once so congenial an employment to womankind, are no indications of any possibility of needlework regaining its hold on either the classes or the masses.
...
... Among other stitches used for grounds are the long flat satin-stitch familiar in Japanese embroideries of all periods, and laid-stitches, i.e., those formed of long threads “laid” on the satin or silk foundation, and held down by short “couching” stitches placed at intervals. Laid-stitch grounds, however, are oftener seen in foreign embroideries, especially Italian and Spanish, than in English examples.

Read the full text at Gutenberg library
- source : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks

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. Japanese Aesthetics エスセティクス - Nihon no bigaku 日本の美学 .


. Mingei 民芸 Folk Art from Japan . 

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22/10/2014

Legrand Paul

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Legrand Paul Legrand ボール・ルグラン


- quote
ボストン美術館  華麗なるジャポニズム展
Boston Museum Japonism Exhibition


インクスタンド Ink Stand - 1876

- source : kurokawatakao-beauty

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“Looking East” exhibition
highlights Japanese influence on Matisse, Monet, Van Gogh and more
Looking East: Western Artists and the Allure of Japan
Opens January 31, 2014

Signaling their own cosmopolitanism, Western artists staged their compositions with elegant oriental props; Japanese fans, kimonos, lanterns, screens, umbrellas, and vases, for example, are especially common in French paintings.
“The French Impressionist Claude Monet looked to his collection of more than 200 Japanese prints as a source of inspiration, and even based the gardens at his country home in Giverny, France on ukiyo-e landscapes,” explains Ms. Kennedy. Characteristic Japanese flora and fauna motifs such as chrysanthemums and butterflies are also incorporated in Western decorative arts as seen in this exhibition’s elaborately decorated inkstand (1876) by the French designer Paul Legrand.
The japonisme influence even extended to architecture, furniture design and book illustrations, examples of which are also on view in this exhibition.
- source : fristcenter.org/news


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. Japonism ジャポニスム .


. Japanese Aesthetics エスセティクス - Nihon no bigaku 日本の美学 . 


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Iwamura Sadao

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Iwamura Sadao
(1912  - 1944)

died: Phillipines ; active: Japan

- quote
This cabinet was made it the mid-1930s by Iwamura Sadao, a graduate of the Kyoto Art and Craft School. With rounded, streamlined corners and strong geometric patterning, the cabinet embodies the international style known as Art Deco. This decorative arts movement first took shape in Paris during the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes of 1925. It was during the run of this exhibition that Prince Asaka, the eighth son of Prince Kuni, and his wife princess Nobuko, the eighth daughter of Emperor Meiji, resided in Paris and became ardent supporters of the design concepts advanced by Art Deco artists.
After returning to Tokyo, they immediately began construction on a sumptuous modern residence which is preserved today as the Teien Art Museum. This palace became a showcase of Art Deco design in Japan and featured the work of designers who combined many of the hallmarks of international Art Deco with Japanese approaches to craft.


lacquer, crystal, mother-of-pearl

While not directly produced for the Teien Palace, this cabinet exemplifies the approach used to create many of the objects that adorned the imperial residence. With its high degree of quality and production, it could easily have been included in this Palace. Not only does Iwamura use Japanese lacquer—albeit in a striking, seldom seen verdant shade—he combines it with mother-of-pearl inlay and shrinks the dimensions to accommodate the size and scale of domestic living in modern Japan.
- source : www.spencerart.ku.edu


. Mingei 民芸 Folk Art from Japan . 


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. Art Deco アールデコ .

. Japanese Aesthetics エスセティクス - Nihon no bigaku 日本の美学 .



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21/10/2014

LaFarge John

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John LaFarge John  ジョン・ラファージ 
(March 31, 1835 – November 14, 1910)


taken in 1902

- quote
an American painter, muralist, stained glass window maker, decorator, and writer.

... He was a pioneer in the study of Japanese art, the influence of which is seen in his work.
During his life, LaFarge maintained a studio at 51 West 10th Street in Greenwich Village, which now is part of the site of Eugene Lang College at the New School University.

LaFarge made extensive travels in Asia and the South Pacific, which inspired his painting. He visited Japan in 1886, and the South Seas in 1890 and 1891, in particular spending time and absorbing the culture of Tahiti.
Henry Adams accompanied him on these trips as a travel companion.



... La Farge experimented with color problems, especially in the medium of stained glass.


- His Work about Japan
An Artist's Letters from Japan (New York, 1897)
Hokusai: a talk about Japanese painting (New York, 1897)

© More in the WIKIPEDIA !




AN ARTIST'S LETTERS FROM JAPAN
BY JOHN LA FARGE

To Henry Adams, Esq.
My Dear Adams: Without you I should not have seen the place, without you I should not have seen the things of which these notes are impressions. If anything worth repeating has been said by me in these letters, it has probably come from you, or has been suggested by being with you—perhaps even in the way of contradiction. And you may be amused by the lighter talk of the artist that merely describes appearances, or covers them with a tissue of dreams. And you alone will know how much has been withheld that might have been indiscreetly said.
If only we had found Nirvana—but he was right who warned us that we were late in this season of the world.
J. L. F.



WHICH IN ENGLISH MEANS:
And you too, Okakura San: I wish to put your name before these notes, written at the time when I first met you, because the memories of your talks are connected with my liking of your country and of its story, and because for a time you were Japan to me. I hope, too, that some thoughts of yours will be detected in what I write, as a stream runs through grass — hidden, perhaps, but always there. We are separated by many things besides distance, but you know that the blossoms scattered by the waters of the torrent shall meet at its end.

- - - - - CONTENTS
An Artist's Letters from Japan
From Tokio to Nikko
The Shrines of Iyéyasŭ and Iyémitsŭ in the Holy Mountain of Nikko
Iyémitsŭ
Tao: The Way
Japanese Architecture
Bric-à-Brac
Sketching
Nirvana
Sketching.—The Flutes of Iyéyasŭ
Sketching.—The Pagoda in Rain
From Nikko to Kamakura
Nikko to Yokohama
Yokohama—Kamakura
Kioto
A Japanese Day.—From Kioto to Gifu
From Kambara to Miyanoshita—A Letter from a Kago
Postscript / Appendix

- source : www.amazon.co.uk


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Project Gutenberg's
An Artist's Letters From Japan, by John La Farge


This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.
1897

- - - - - Read the full text HERE

- source : www.gutenberg.org/files

excerpt
JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE
Nikko, August 2.

I fear that of all my description the refrain of the words gold and bronze will be all that you will retain. How can I have any confidence in my account of anything so alien, whose analysis involves the necessary misuse of our terms, based upon another past in art?—for words in such cases are only explanations or easy mnemonics of a previous sight. But soon I shall have photographs to send, and if I can summon courage for work, in this extreme heat and moisture, I shall make some drawings. But again, these would not give the essential reasons for things being as they are; and whatever strange beauties would be noted, they might appear to have happened, if I may so say, and not to have grown of necessity. It is so difficult for our average way of accepting things to think of what is called architecture without expecting structures of stone—something solid and evidently time-defying.

And yet, if architecture represents the needs of living of a people, the differences that we see here will have the same reasonableness that other devices show elsewhere. The extreme heat, the sudden torrents of rain, will explain the far-projecting and curved roofs, the galleries and verandas, the arrangements for opening or closing the sides of buildings by sliding screens, which allow an adjustment to the heat or the damp. But weightier reasons than all these must have directed in the construction of such great buildings as the temples, and I think [Pg 120] that, putting aside important race influences, these sufficient reasons will be found in the volcanic nature of Japan and its frequent earthquakes. Whatever was to be built must have had to meet these difficult problems: how successfully in the past is shown by a persistence of their buildings which to us seems extraordinary, for many of them are lasting yet in integrity for now over a thousand years.

I speak of the influences of race, because it is evident that very many traditions, prejudices, and symbolic meanings are built into these forms, and that many of them must have come through the teachings of China. Everywhere the higher architecture, embodied in shrines and temples, is based on some ideal needs, and not essentially upon necessities; is, in fact, a record or expression of a religious idea or mystery. In this case I am too profoundly ignorant, as most of us are, to work out origins; but my mind feels the suggestion of an indefinite past, that once had meanings and teachings, just as my eye recognizes in the shape of the massive temples the image of a sacred box, or ark, once to be carried from place to place. There is, perhaps, in this direction a line of study for the men to come.

Like all true art, the architecture of Japan has found in the necessities imposed upon it the motives for realizing beauty, and has adorned the means by which it has conquered the difficulties to be surmounted. Hence no foundations, which would compromise the super-imposed building by making it participate in the shock given to its base. Hence solid pedestals, if I may so call them, or great bases, upon which are placed only, not built in, the posts which support the edifice, leaving a space between this base and the horizontal beams or floors of the building. The building is thus rendered elastic, and resumes its place after the trembling of the earthquake, and the [Pg 121] waters of bad weather can escape without flooding any foundations.

The great, heavy, curved roof, far overhanging, weighs down this structure, and keeps it straight. An apparently unreasonable quantity of adjusted timber and beams supports the ceiling and the roof. Complicated, tremendous corbelings, brackets grooved and dovetailed, fill the cornices as with a network; but all these play an important practical part, and keep the whole construction elastic, as their many small divisions spread the shock.

Still more, in such a building as the charming pagoda at Iyéyasŭ's shrine, which is full one hundred feet high, slight-looking and lithe, the great beam or mast which makes its center does not support from the base, but is cut off at the foundation; and hence it acts as a sort of pendulum, its great weight below retarding the movement above when the earthquake comes.

I have heard the whisper of a legend saying that the architect who devised this, to correct the errors of a rival and partner, was poisoned in due time, in jealous return. For those were happy times when backbiting among artists took the more manly form of poisoning.

Now besides all this, which gives only the reason for the make of certain parts which together form the unity of a single building, there are other principles before us. The relation of man to nature, so peculiarly made out in the Japanese beliefs, is made significant, symbolized, or typified through the manner in which these buildings are disposed. A temple is not a single unity, as with us, its own beginning and end. A temple is an arrangement of shrines and buildings meaningly placed, often, as here, in mountains—a word synonymous with temples; each shrine a statement of some divine attribute, and all these buildings spread with infinite art over large spaces, open, or inclosed by trees and rocks. The buildings are but [Pg 122] parts of a whole. They are enveloped by nature, the principle and the adornment of the subtle or mysterious meaning which links them all together.

Besides all this is the religious symbolism underlying or accompanying all, as once with us, of which I know too little to speak, but which can be felt and occasionally detected because of many repetitions. But this would carry me beyond my limits; and, indeed, we find it very difficult to obtain any more information from our instructors, whether they do not know securely, or whether they reserve it for better minds and worthier apprehensions. Nor do I object to this Oriental secrecy or mystery, as it adds the charm of the veil, which is often needed.

And I should wish that soon some one might undertake to make out in full the harmony of proportions which has presided over these buildings. It is evident that a delicate and probably minute system of relations, under the appearance of fantasy, produces here the sense of unity that alone makes one secure of permanent enjoyment. My information on the subject is fragmentary: I know that the elegant columns are in a set relation to the openings of the temple; that the shape of these same columns is in another relation to their exquisite details; that the rafters play an important part, determining the first departure. I have seen carpenter's drawings, with manners of setting out work and measurements, and I feel that there is only a study to carry out.

Nor is my wish mere curiosity, or the interest of the antiquarian. What we need to-day is belief and confidence in similar methods, without which there is nothing for ourselves but a haphazard success; no connection with the eternal and inevitable past, and none with a future, which may change our materials, but will never change our human need for harmony and order.

You have heard of the little gardens, and of their exquisite [Pg 123] details, in which the Japanese makes an epitome of nature, arranged as if for one of his microscopic jewels of metals, ivory, or lacquer.

Here in our own garden there would seem no call for an artificial nature. The mountain slope on which we live must have always been beautiful of itself; but for all that, our garden—that is to say, the space about our landlord's house and our own—has been treated with extreme care. Our inclosure is framed towards the great temple groves, and the great mountains behind them, by a high wall of rock, over which, at a corner edged with moss, rolls a torrent, making a waterfall that breaks three times. The pool below, edged with iris that grow in the garden sand, is crossed by a bridge of three big flat stones, and empties secretly away. On each side of the fall, planted in the rock wall, stands a thick-set paulownia, with great steady leaves, and bending towards it a willow, whose branches drop far below itself and swing perpetually in the draught of the waterfall. Bunches of pink azalea grow in the hollows of the rocks, and their reflections redden the eddies of the pool. Steps which seem natural lead up the wall of rock; old pines grow against it, and our feet pass through their uppermost branches. On the top is planted a monumental stone, and from there a little path runs along, leading nowhere nowadays, as far as I can make out. I am right in calling this mass of rock, which is a spur of the mountain's slope, a wall; for I look down from its top to the next inclosure far below, now overgrown and wild. What is natural and what was made by man has become so blended together, or has always been so, that I can choose to look at it as my mood may be, and feel the repose of nature or enjoy the disposing choice of art.

Where the little bridge crosses over, and where mossy rocks dip down a little to allow a passage, edged by a maple and a pine, I look over across the hidden road to a [Pg 124] deserted yashiki, with one blasted tree, all overgrown with green and melting into distances of trees which, tier behind tier, reach to a little conical hill, that is divided and subdivided by sheets of mist at every change of heat and damp, so that I feel half as if I knew its forms perfectly—half as if I could never get them all by heart.

In the sand of our little garden are set out clumps of flowers, chrysanthemum mostly, and occasionally iris and azalea; and the two houses make its other two sides. The priest's house, an old one, with large thatched roof projecting in front and supported there by posts covered with creepers, is nearer the water. I see the little priest with his young neophyte curled on the mats in the big front room whose whole face is open; while in a break, or wing, is the opening to the practical housekeeper side of the dwelling.

Our own house, which faces south like the priest's, completes the square, as I said. It is edged on the outside by a small plantation of trees with no character, that stretch away to the back road and to a wall terracing a higher ground behind. There a wide space overgrown with bushes and herbage, that cover former care and beauty, spreads out indefinitely toward conical hills hot in the sun, behind which rises the great volcanic slope of Nio-ho. A little temple shrine, red, white, and gold, stands in this heat of sunlight and makes cooler yet the violets and tender greens of the great slopes. This is to the north. When I look toward the west I see broad spaces broken up by trees, and the corner of Iyéyasŭ's temple wall half hidden by the gigantic cedars, and as I write, late in the afternoon, the blue peak of Nan-tai-san rounded off like a globe by the yellow mist.

The garden, embosomed in this vastness of nature, feels small, as though it were meant to be so. Every part is on a small scale, and needs few hands to keep [Pg 125] things in order. We have a little fountain in the middle of the garden, which gives the water for our bath, and sends a noisy stream rolling through the wooden trough of the wash-room. The fountain is made by a bucket placed upon two big stones, set in a basin, along whose edge grow the iris, still in bloom. A hidden pipe fills the bucket, and a long, green bamboo makes a conduit for the water through the wooden side of our house. With another bamboo we tap the water for our bath. In the early morning I sit in the bath-room and paint this little picture through the open side, while A——, upstairs in the veranda, is reading in Dante's "Paradiso," and can see, when he looks up, the great temple roof of the Buddhist Mangwanji.

Occasionally the good lady who takes care of our priest's house during his weeks of service at the temple of Iyémitsŭ salutes me while at my bath, for the heating of which her servant has supplied the charcoal. She is already dressed for the day, and in her black silk robe walks across the garden to dip her toothbrush in the running water of the cascade. Then in a desultory way she trims the plants and breaks off dead leaves, and later the gardener appears and attends to one thing after another, even climbing up into the old pine tree, taking care of it as he does of the sweet-peas; and I recall the Japanese gardener whom I knew at our Exposition of 1876, as I saw him for the last time, stretched on the ground, fanning the opening leaves of some plant that gave him anxiety.

Thus the Japanese garden can be made of very slight materials, and is occasionally reduced to scarcely anything, even to a little sand and a few stones laid out according to a definite ideal of meaning. A reference to nature, a recall of the general principles of all landscapes,—of a foreground, a distance, and a middle distance; [Pg 126] that is to say, a little picture,—is enough. When they cannot deal with the thing itself—when they do, they do it consummately—they have another ideal which is not so much the making of a real thing as the making of a picture of it. Hence the scale can be diminished, without detriment in their eyes, until it becomes lilliputian to ours. All this I take to be an inheritance from China, modified toward simplicity. I do not know to what type our little garden belongs. For they have in their arrangements manners of expressing ideas of association, drawing them from nature itself, or bringing them out by references to tradition or history, so that I am told that they aim to express delicate meanings which a Western imagination can hardly grasp; types, for instance, conveying the ideas of peace and chastity, quiet old age, connubial happiness, and the sweetness of solitude. Does this make you laugh, or does it touch you—or both? I wish I knew more about it, for I am sure that there is much to say.

I have spoken of simplicity. The domestic architecture is as simple, as transitory, as if it symbolized the life of man. You can see it all in the drawings, in the lacquers, and it has recently been treated completely in the charming book of Professor Morse. Within, the Japanese house is simplicity itself; all is framework, and moving screens instead of wall. No accumulations, no bric-à-brac; any lady's drawing-room with us will contain more odds and ends than all that I have yet seen together in Japan. The reserved place of honor, a sort of niche in the wall, the supposed seat of an ideal guest, has upon its bench some choice image on a stand, or a vase with elegant disposal of flowers or plants, and above it the hanging roll with drawing or inscription. Perhaps some other inscription or verse, or a few words on a tablet upon some cross-beam, and perhaps a small folding screen. Otherwise [Pg 127] all works of art are put aside in the fireproof store-house, to be brought out on occasions. The woodwork is as simple as it can be—occasionally, some beautiful joinery; always, when it can be afforded, exquisite workmanship; and, above all, exquisite cleanliness. For there are no beds—only wadded coverlets and the little wooden pillow, which does not disturb the complicated feminine coiffure in the languors of the night. No tables; food is laid on the cleanly mats, in many trays and dishes. No chairs; the same mats that serve for bedstead and table serve for seats with, perhaps, a cushion added.

And this is all the same for all, from emperor's palace to little tradesman's cottage. There is nothing, apparently, but what is necessary, and refinement in disposing of that. The result is sometimes cold and bare. There is the set look of insisting upon an idea—the idea of doing with little: a noble one, certainly; as, for instance, when the emperor's palace at Kioto is adorned merely by the highest care in workmanship and by the names of the artists who painted the screen walls—in solitary contradiction to the splendor and pomp of all absolute rulers, no storehouse for the wasted money of the people, but an example of the economy which should attend the life of the ruler. It is possible that when I return I shall feel still more distaste for the barbarous accumulations in our houses, and recall the far more civilized emptiness persisted in by the more esthetic race.
- source : www.gutenberg.org/files


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Utsunomiya Tsuritenjo Jiken 宇都宮 釣天井事件 The Ceiling at Utsunomiya
and
Tokugawa Iemitsu (Iyémitsŭ) 徳川家光 Third Shogun

. Near Utsunomiya, August 30, 1886 .


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A Rishi Calling Up A Storm - Japanese Folk Lore


source and more : www.1st-art-gallery.com

Location: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

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ジョン ラファージ vs 広重 - LaFarge versus Hiroshige

- source : rokkomiki.exblog.jp


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. . . CLICK here for Photos !


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. Japanese Aesthetics エスセティクス - Nihon no bigaku 日本の美学 .


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