The previous print didn't have much explicit 'seasonal' content, so it could have appeared anywhere in the set; this image also isn't very strongly 'typed' for season, but I think it suits a sunny May day perfectly!

This is a reproduction, but as usual, I can't leave things alone, and have adapted it a little. What you see here is one small area 'clipped' from a full o-ban size print - one of the images in the set Azuma Fuzoku, (Household Scenes from the East) created by Chikanobu in Meiji 34 (1901). I have admired the prints in this series for a long time, and just a couple of months ago was able to obtain a number of them from an internet auction. When I was checking over the new acquisitions I noticed this young girl and immediately decided that she belonged in the Hanga Treasure Chest.

I imagine that the Meiji viewers' attention was drawn mainly to the exotic bicycle, but these days, a bicycle is nothing special at all; it is the young girl's clothing that seems unusual to us! I wonder just how common such a scene must have been back in those days? I can well imagine older folks 'tut-tutting' at the idea of a young girl sailing along in kimono on one of those 'new-fangled' contraptions, but I'm sure most young people were eager to embrace all the new technologies. Actually, this looks a bit dangerous; those long sleeves could easily catch in the spinning wheels. Perhaps that 'thrill' was part of the attraction!

Just what is it that I 'saw' in this image that made me want to use it? I honestly can't say. I used to ask print dealers here in Tokyo to 'keep your eyes open for images that I can use in my work', showing them many of the prints I had made so far, and expecting that this would give them a good idea of what kind of thing to look for. I have learned that this is completely pointless - after all, if I myself can't understand what makes an image 'just right' for one of my albums, how can I expect anybody else to do so!

So all I can do is keep scouting around as much as I can, and trust to serendipity to strike now and then!

David
Monday, May 23, 2005

(Here's the print in context in the Treasure Chest series.)

Posted by Dave Bull at 09:04 PM | Comments (2)

The series of prints that include the one shown in this image (click to popup an enlargement) was recently described by an expert on the subject as: "... containing the essence of shin hanga ..." Those of us who know something of the history of the production and distribution of these prints however, may wonder what that statement really means. At the time of the production of such prints (early 20th century), scenery like this was already cliched and out-of-date, but Hasegawa and Watanabe, the two major shin-hanga producers, knew what their customers wanted - images of Japan that matched the 'exotic' and 'quaint' mental impressions that they had of this country - and by all reports, they were extremely successful at it. How though, can we now seriously give any credence to an art form when we know that its single apparent purpose was to suck dollars out of tourists?

Posted by Dave Bull at 04:14 PM | Comments (11)

So just how much detail can we cram into one of these little prints? I don't know about you, but I definitely need my reading glasses to look at this one! In my small collection of prints and books is a colour woodblock album, made in the Meiji-period, containing reproductions of works by Hanabusa Itcho, who lived in the late 17th to early 18th century. It was issued by a publisher in Niigata Prefecture in Meiji 21 (1888), and is rather clumsily produced, with little of the elegance that we find in many Meiji printed books. The album contains quite a random collection of images, many of which seem to be illustrations of scenes from novels of his day. The origin of this particular scene though, goes back quite a bit farther. This well-known fable apparently had its beginning in early Buddhist writings more than 2,200 years ago, and by some 1,000 years after that had spread to the west and the far east.

During the time that I was working on this print, I discussed the fable with a few people, and was a bit surprised by some of their impressions of it; I think that perhaps the 'meaning' of the story is frequently misinterpreted!

I'm sure you know the basic story - the group of blind men inspect an elephant and then report their wildly varying impressions: "It's like a rope! It's like a tree! ..." I suppose if we don't give it much thought, the story does seem like a simplistic view of how easy it is to 'fool' somebody who can't see as well as we can. But of course, the story isn't about blind people at all; it's about you and me. About how any of us, no matter how broad-minded we might think we are, frequently fail to see things as other people see them, and fail to recognize that another way of doing things may have equal validity with our own.

And now, more than 2,000 years after the story was first told, our newspapers every day show us the results of our failure to understand it.

(By the way, do you think elephants really have such eyelashes? I suppose Itcho never actually had a chance to see one ...)

David
Monday, May 9, 2005

(Here's the print in context in the Treasure Chest series.)

Posted by Dave Bull at 09:01 PM | Comments (0)