05.21.08
Posted in F-Design, Wafuku (kimono) tagged design, F-Design, Finland in Japan, Marimekko, wafuku at 20:18 by krause
Some time ago already I bought some fabric to make an obi for my purple tsumugi awase. I found striped blue/purple viscose/cotton fabric so stiff it almost doesn’t need stiffener. I was browsing some of my favorite obi links and found…
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that a Japanese woman had thought Marimekko was perfect for sewing an obi. |
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And what’s funny, obi means also stripe, not only belt or sash. So the bag (or fabric) is named OBI in Japanese. (Click on image to surf to seller.) |
Well, we the round eyed, we like the Oriental stuff. But hey, Marimekko looks great as an obi, and evidently the cotton material is ok, too. Works well with a more modern kimono like this:
Wafuku (Japanese traditional clothing, e.g. kimono / yukata / obi) are not the only traditionally Japanese goods manufactured in Marimekko motifs. I need one of these Marimekko kotatsu covers:
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If you don’t believe kotatsu covers are a big thing, visit the site by clicking on the image. |
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05.13.08
Posted in Japanese, Uncategorized, Word and print at 15:56 by krause
The first one is Finland-related, too. This is a map dating back to the Chinese Revolution (1911). It was published in Japan in 1914. For Finns the Russian bear is not surprising.
Image above is from http://diglib.princeton.edu
Click the image above to examine parts of the map in detail.
(Selected area marked by a blue border may be zoomed in using + and - keys;
move around and select area by clicking on the smaller map.)
Also Finland seems to have made it on the map, but in “fabric”, maybe suggesting impermanence. Many nations in southeastern Europe and Africa have been stitched together like a quilt, maybe to suggest fluctuation. America is monitoring the situation in the lower right corner wearing a tall top hat and a rifle in his hand.
[Note! All characters here should be read from right to left, as I copied them from the map that way. All romanization is from left to right, however.]
The Chinese characters are èèŹ (”Finland” in traditional Chinese, pronounced fÄn lĂĄn). èŹ (fÄn) means fragrance, aroma; perfume and è (lĂĄn) means orchid. What a beautiful name for Finland in Chinese! Of course orchids do not come to mind first when thinking of Finland – but the Chinese as well as the Japanese allocate kanji or hanzi for things also according to sounds / fonemes. As Fen lan sounds just about right, they will then pick characters with that particular pronunciation, try to somehow find two that match (as flower and fragrance) and, voilĂ , a country has been given a name.
In Lapland, the katakana syllables ă©ăłăform kora, Kola Peninsula or Kuola in Finnish. 泶ć (hantoo) is Japanese for “half-island” orăpeninsula.
Germany is a wild hog pierced by arrows from Japan, “Gritain” or Great Britain, and Russia.
Japan I can’t interpret. It seems to be a man with the Japanese flag on his chest. And as Japan was strongly in Korea, there is a small similar man leaning against the Cinese pig, too. I don’t know enough of Japanese clothing of that time to even try to guess the closer meaning of the guy. The map was printed in Japan, so I suppose it is not the most insulting of puns in this map. I can tell China is holding a giant looking glass over Japan, however. Formosa, or Taiwan, is being trampled under China’s feet.
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05.12.08
Posted in Japanese, Word and print at 14:39 by krause
This week I stumbled upon some interesting old prints from Japan.
The first is Baika Women’s University Library collection that consists of 167 crĂȘpe-paper books (including those printed on thick Japanese paper) published by Hasegawa Kobunsha as well as other publishers.
The site is somewhat hard to navigate if you don’t know Japanese. Start with the Introduction – and click on the menu items on the left (they are in Japanese) and then click on the English version link at the top right corner. You will have to do this separately on every page. The flash interface is nice, but images aren’t bigger than the one above. The stories are complete scans, thouhg 
To straight away choose a story to view, go to the index and click on any item.
The second interesting print is an Edo period anatomy scroll (Kaibou Zonshinzu) at the Tohoku University Library in Japan.
The scrolls are painted in 1819 by Kyoto-area physician Yasukazu Minagaki. According to the Keio University Library (where these documents are currently stored), the two scrolls contain 83 illustrations based on Minagakiâs observations of over 40 bodies. The illustrations differ from their Western counterparts as they depict – in this case, probably convicted criminals – in a “realistic” way. Western anatomy books usually remove all gore, fluids, facial expressions etc. from the illustrations.
The third book is a free downloadable book “Japanese Costume” at the Internet Archive, published in 1923 by the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.
And finally, there are some interesting rare books in the collection of the Library of the Diet ćœç«ćœäŒćłæžé€š. Here, for example, is a painted scroll depicting a dance (the Japanese title says iat is a dance “map”, maybe instructions? Not many Japanese can read the italics of the scroll, and certainly not me. There are also wood block prints:
Utagawa Hiroshige (æć·ćșé) : æ±æžèżéć
«æŻäčć
(Edo kinkou hakkei no uchi)
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