Indigo Blue

Our next topic is #indigo #unihan #technozi #hanzi #kanji

Predating Chinese and maybe Austronesian and Tai there seems to be a very old that was used across SE Asia . Old Chinese had *kraam which seems to make from an older SinoTibetan radical #Gran or #gram 

Vietnamese also calls indigo CHAM 

Malay has tarom probably from protoaustronesian *tarum a nd ProtoTai seems to have had a word *graaam the origin of Thai kraam which suggests to me Indigo dyeing dates back to the Neolithic?

In this series I will also cover prints featuring the use of indigo dye and other arts and crafts.

QING BLUE Technozi

#technozi #hanzi #kanji qing blue

While this is usually read as GREEN in Modern Chinese it also means blue and sometimes means blue black hair or fibre which is why specialists refere to it as meaning the Color of Living Things

I am not absolutely certain about the SinoKorean and Koerean reading.

Bear in mind the final N in MIn dialects can be a nasalized vowel 

The double hh represents an aspiration 

SinoJapanese I type a double oo to show a long vowel in case a reader has an older computer not fully Unicode compliant 

I have given this character a green outline to represent the double meaning.

Qing Blue 2018

Welcome to a new sequence about the color Blue 

starting with this image of the #hanzi #kanji QING 

Watch out for the next posts in this series featuring Qing Lan and Bi and then Cang.

Chikanobu was a Samurai

#chikanobu was according of what little I have found about him a #samurai of rank high enought to have had some art training in the traditional Kano style which I explains a lot about his fondness for Background gradients. However due to his involvement in rebellions against the backlash against the #meiji regime he was probably the only #ukiyo-e artist I know of who was both originally of samurai rank and may have fought or seen actual cavalry battles or at least one of the last of them

This #print is from his #talesoftheheike series

Chikanobu is one of the few artists to depict a volley of arrows and how armour to deflect arrows or hinder them from reaching flesh and the detail ...a sandal thats come loose ...men who've lost their helmets raising their arms to shield their faces ... surely this is an image by someone whos actually been on a battle field and isnt just copying a kabuki pose !

Chikanobu - Takiyasha-hime

#chikanobu #takiyasha-hime #ukiyo-e #print

Princess Takiyasha-hime is a legend that appears in kagura and kabuki.

She was the one surviving daughter of Taira no Masakado who rebelled against the Kyoto government and tried to become Emperor in 939. You may have seen the print by Kuniyoshi with the giant skeleton? I think I like Chikanobu's less dramatic but still spooky version.

She is wearing the ritual robes of an onmyoji a practitioner of Onmyodo also known as inyodo or Onyodo a strange uniquely Japanese fusion of Taosim and Shinto ritual practices and sometimes magic. Most Onmyoji were diviners or astrologers or experts on rituals or feng shui and other things.

The story claims Takiyasha-hime  originally called Satsuki had taken refuge as a nun at Mount Tsukuba and was either given a scroll or tutored by a wizard called Nikushisen on the art of frog magic?

Whether she was actually a magical practitioner or just a deluded refugee she seems to have tried to start another rebellion. Given she came from the Kanto area perhaps her giant toad steed was actually a horse or pony prone to kicking and jumping nicknamed Toad and her frogs and yokai army rebellious locals ... whatever her story inspired this print!

Though admittedly you probably have to be familiar with Heian and Edo period costume to see just how spooky and eerie the use of pale yellows and loosely flowing hair in an almost masculine style are !

Really Chikanobu's compositions deserve more praise and attention. 

I suspect his print works including what could be seen as proMeiji propaganda may have lead to him becoming half forgotten. Compare his works to later Shin Hanga masters. I also suspect his use of gradients influenced them? 

Back to something more "technozi" next time. A few years back I posted on color adjectives.

I'll be posting about words for blue in Chinese and other languages soon!

Chikanobu - Princess with a Dragon

Todays  #chikanobu #print features a #dragon and a #princess.
#ukiyoe #japaneseprint
I don't know if Chikanobu give the colorist notes or showed him his color sketches but the color balance is wonderful and notice how the red dots are echoed on the robe and the light blues complement the grays and whites of the dragon and background.

Chikanobu - Charming Dragons

#chikanobu #dragons

While Chikanobu is best known for Battle scenes and Bijinga

Here's a quieter more poetic yet spooky work .

And a reminder that for Heian aristocrats both musical and martial arts were important!

The Biwa player has discarded his armour and archery quiver to play music.

Chikanobu made full use of the ability of 19th century  print colorists to create gradients and tones as fine and subtle as those of an actual ink painting!

The tonal gradient in the background also  draws attention to the line work on the dragon and the details of the robe and pile of armour in the foreground!