GUAN TONG _ MOUNTAIN

 I"m thinking about mountains and one of the mostfamous paintingsof a mountain is this one by GUAN TONG whichI haveposted about before but its such an amazing work

There's just so much in this scroll painting on silk. The clouds and mist the peaks and ridges the waterfall flowing down from the heights the trees in the bottom foreground the tonal gradient the touches of yellow on the leaves marking the season as Autumn.

Enjoy contemplating it. 

KASAGI TWO

 KASAGI TWO

Having you shown you the poem and a translation this time ... here's a poem "card" I made>

I may post this and a larger poster size version on Reb Bubble Deviantart or Patreon ... havnt decided where ...

The illustration was done using Inkscape plus some brush texture added in Gimp.

A note from next week due to a schedule change and lockdown I may only be able to post once a week instead of about every 4- 5 days as my volunteer hours may change if or when we go back to partial lockdown in Sydney and my PAID work hours ... well lets say it would be great if I had a lot more followers and hence some Adsense or sales income ?  

Kasagi Sequence One

 #kasagi #waka #japanesepoetry #fujiwarashunzei #shunzei #samidare #kumogakuretsutsu 

KASAGI SEQUENCE 

I will be posting about this poem here and some illustrations inspired by it over on my Patreon.

This is one of those poems that seem quite simple until you analyse and translate it and realise the skill involved.

Starts off quite simply 

samidare      so early summer rain in May but then 

minakami masaru the rain is overwhelming everything ?

izumigawa spring river ?  origin river ? er no 

it took me 2 weeks of research to find out that Izumigawa is an old name for what is now known as the Kizugawa river south of Kyoto 

and the next line seems simple kasaki yama  okay Mount Kasagi in modern Japanese but enter it as a google search term and you may get Kasagiyama near Ena in Gifu! 

so is it flooding or just heavy rain or mist or fog rising from the river 

Kasagiyama is a place you go to for cherry blossom viewing and pilgrimages to an old Shingon buddhist temple and sightseeing various boulders or climbing on them.

Perhaps Shunzei was there for a buddhist retreat for look how he ends the poem 

kumogakuretsutsu kumo + gakure +tsutsu something like continually disappearing ?

so the mist or rain is fluctuating or is it a double reference implying he's there in a hermitage a hidden place maybe looking down upon the river valley?

Elegantly simple yet every reading rises another question ?

Or perhaps I just need to study a lot more waka poetry? 

A Summer rain medley.

 japaneseprints #ukiyo-e #prints #summer rain #rain 

A Summer Rain Medley

Here are some prints contrasting various ways of depicting summer rain.

Shigenobu Night Rain at Akasaka 

Hiroshige Summer Rain Suhara 

Kiyonaga Storm Scene