Chikanobu Print - A girl writing

#chikanobu #print #ukiyo-e

Here's a print of interest for several reasons. 

But first ...

Disclaimer this was downloaded from Wikipedia Commons 

who got their copy from the Met Museum

You may possibly see other versions owned privately. 

Note short hair denoting a very young girl. She's not just doing calligraphy. 

She may still be learning to write with a brush. 

Note the details of the writing box. 

Inkstone. Inkstick with a yellow wrapper. An extra brush. 

Its not a fancy lacquered box !

Note use of tinted background to complement colors of kimono.

The details on the kimono and obi suggest this is not a commoner but some one from an upper class well off family. 

More Chikanobu

#chikanobu #naginata

MORE CHIKANOBU - Women PRACTISING WITH NAGINATA

Hashimoto Naoyoshi also knwon as Yoshitsuru Yooshuu and Toyohara Chikanobu unlike some better known ukiyo-e artists was an actual samurai who had fought in battles and was involved in the final rebellions against the Meiji Regime.

As part of his education as well as military training he had studied Kano style and techniques.

He moved to Tokyo and became an ukiyo-e print artist / designer in his middle years studying the styles of Eisen Kuniyoshi and Kunisada.

There is a certain element of nostalgia in this and possibly of fantasy.

Its quite possible Chikanobu would have seen female relatives practising with naginata but whether they wore such colorful kimono with purple dye that bright ... Bijin were one of his themes but he was noted for battle scenes too. He did a whole series of prints illustrating a lifestyle that was disappearing during his life time. More next time.

Samurai women with Naginata

Here's a couple of ukiyo-e prints with #samurai #women wielding #naginatas

Women Samurai at the Battle of Kagoshima rebelling against the Meiji regime.

Posed as this looks the artist may have actually been there as its by Chikanobu Toyohara who was one of the samurai rebels before he became a print artist!

Finally for contrast a photo 

yes it is one of those staged photos said to tourists but still useful !

WOLF TECHNOZI

#wolf #unihan #unicode #technozi #asianlanguages #chinese #japanese #hanzi #kanji

I'll be putting up a special technozi on Patreon with a wolf theme hopefully this weekend !

Palace Guardians with Naginatas

I was looking for something completely different when I came across this striking #ukiyo-e print of #Women #Warriors, #Samurai palace guards using #naginata! Enjoy

This is a night scene and yes that is smoke in the background as its based on a historical incident.
Plus an absolutely gorgeous and skilful use of a limited palette!

A Wolf Shrine

I've been doing more reading on Japanese Wolves.

It seems they were opportunistic predators sometimes preying on humans and their horses and yet sometimes tolerating human presence. There's a belief that at least one Japanese dog breed is part Wolf and reported sightings of this officially extinct species are probably of feral dogs with wolf genes.

The stories vary from place to place however in one special place nearly lost there is a whole shrine ceiling covered with paintings of wolves.

The Yamatsumi shrine up in Fukushima was damaged by a fire a few years back but fortunately someone had photographed the ceiling art and and a group of scholars and painters got together to restore the paintings when the shrine was rebuilt.

The wolf lives on in spirit and art !

Fox or Wolf ?

#ukiyo-e #japanesewolf #wolf #fox #japaneseprint

This is one of the #Yoshitoshi print sereis called 100 Aspects of the Moon in English.

I have often see the animal in this print identified as a fox however recently I have discovered it is not a gray fox but the probably extinct Japanese Wolf. Yoshitoshi was probably working of a fur or older pictures and had never seen a live wolf. Also Japanese wolves regardless of what you see in a certain #miyazaki film seem to have been rather small and slender and shy canids. They rarely seem to have attacked humans in Japan but tradition suggests they might follow humans walking by night and they were often thought of as protective spirits possibly because like foxes they might prey on herbivores that damaged crops.

This print suggests hostile intentions but given its a Heian aristo may simply be a legend based on some overtly sensitive poet encountering wolves courting and howling at the moon.

Here's a statute of a wolf at one of the last remaining shrines where they are honored as guardian spirits and servants of Oguchinomakami .

It looks like a modern copy of an older work to me.

There are said to be 20 wolf god SHINTO shrines but I've only found info about a copy of them.
I'll share more of what scraps I've found in the next post!