ITO JAKUCHU - PLUMS AND CRANES

 ITO JAKUCHU PLUMS AND CRANES

Plums are a traditional symbol of winter 

Perhaps someone was feeding cranes as pets in a garden ? 

Giving Ito the idea for this work?

Ito Jakuchu - White Phoenix

 #Ito #jakuchu #white #phoenix 

While Ito usually avoided painting dragons or phoenixes preferring birds he also created this masterwork

Phoenix on Tea Caddy

 #Japanese #lacquer is an unceasing source of Delight 

This is the lid of a tea caddy. Such exquisite craft and design !

Have a good Christmas people 

Phoenixes on Japanese Ceramics

#phoenixes # Japanese #ceramics 

 Here is an elegant example of 18thc. #japanese #ceramics showing how the Japanese took imported Chinese techniques and motifs and refined them further. I can think of some 18th Chinese Ceramics that seem to try to use every under and over glaze color with as much detail as possible to the point the figures become patterns whereas this Japanese work is restrained and elegant.

More phoenixes next time as they are this months post theme. Follow this series for examples of phoenixes on ceramics paintings lacquer and more.

Kano Tanshin - Phoenix Screen

 #KanoTanshin #Kano #phoenix #whitephoenix #screenpainting #japanesepainting 

In the 18th century in Japan there are several paintings featuring White rather than Five Colored Phoenixes. I suspect the reasons for this are printed books showing Phoenixes as outline drawings, imported chinese or other east asian monochrome ceramics, and the influence of minimal aesthetics valuing the concept of reduced colors.

Here's one example. This is the middle two screens of a six screen painting.

The white is probably a mineral pigment and stands out all the more given the muted restrained use of colors as highlights on the rest of the set of screens.

This is Kano but you can  see how Kano influenced Rimpa and how both influenced later Nihonga works?

 

why read haiku? 3 reasons

Some reasons to read haiku 

Okay so 100s have been translated into other languages and thousands if not millions written over the centuries in Japanese.

Why read them?

The best are perfect exquisite gems every syllable working together to invoke image sound n feeling

They remind us of things photos can not capture although they often seem similar to snapshots or instagram catching echoes of moments.

They are beautiful.

Korean Phoenix Vase

#Korean #phoenix #vase #ceramics #asianceramics #koreanceramics

 

This is not as elaborately detailed as some Chinese and Japanese depictions but it has grace and lightness and lines that curve with beauty across the surface of the vessel. 

It really shows the beauty of using cobalt pigment in place of ink !

More phoenixes next time! 

Hokusai's Phoenix Painting

 Hokusai's Phoenix Painting 

#hokusai #phoenix 

While Hokusai is best known as a print designer he did also paint !

I have shared this one before but as this is one of his lesser known works I wanted to share it so more people can enjoy it !

Ink Masters - Fan Kuan

 #inkmasters #ink #fankuan #chineselanscapepainting

One of the most famous ink landscape paintings in the history of Chinese art is this one by Fan Kuan.

I was once lucky enough to view a book that had a foldoutreproduction that was roughly the same size as the original scroll.

Lets just say the original is about 10 times or more larger than this image! 

notice how mist and water move your eye across and down the image.

How the trees on top of the peak balance those below. 

INk Masters Hasegawa - Pine and Bamboo

 #ink #inktober #japanesepainting #pines #hasegawa 

This time we're looking at a Japanese painting - Pine and Bamboo by Hasegawa Tohaku.

The image belwo is 2 sections of a larger work 

This is a very "formal" work featuring Pine and Bamboo.

Bamboo is particularly difficult to paint as it requires advanced brush skills whether you are using an outline or "boneless" technique or combining both. Hasegawa could have used color and there are some beautiful paintings using color by later Rimpa and Nihonga painters but has stayed with a monochrome "palette" of black creating depth without perspective by using tones and space with a composition seeming random but well proportioned use of the spaces between bamboo trunks contrasting with low curves suggesting the ground and hinting at slopes. 

Finally the contrasting but closely adjacent pine and bamboo branches above draw our eye right to left from light grays to deeper darker tones. 

What can we learn from this about tones and layout ?

Or just enjoy the ink ! 

Follow me for more in my INktober Ink Masters series

Another Ink Master - Mi Fei

 ANOTHER INK MASTER - MI FEI

#mifei #ink #inktober #Chinesepainting

Why is this special?

It seems quite simple doesnt it to modern eyes used to seeing pointillist techniques in both Asian and Western painting but MI FEI was one of the first if not the first Chinese painters to use this technique of black ink and textures built up using dots not strokes! While other painters were suing minimalist sweeps of the brush Mi Fei concentrated on texture while still creating traditional S curve compositions using "empty" space and voids.

Join me for the next inktober Inkmaster post 

Ai Haze updating a dew old draft versions

Black Ink in Guo Xi's Early Spring.

 #inktober #chinese inkpainting 

For Inktober I'm focusing on Chinese and Japanese monochrome ink paintings.

This is a cropped closeup of part of Guo Xi's Early Spring.

An European painter might have chosen to emphasize flowers and green leaves but this is early spring in northern china and the artist choose to emphasize the first signs of spring as a change in structure with branches dotted and darkened by dots and strokes of black to show emerging growth but lighter grays used to suggest a middle ground and vegetation on the upper left.

Here's all of that same work.

Again the black ink creates tone structure and texture ! 

INktober and Monochrome Painting

 #inktober again so lets look at monochrome paintings this month

Here's a very famous Chinese painting of a horse.

Its possible there was originally some tinting given the age of this work but black is the dominant color and it certainly shows how a Chinese brush maestro could do with a limited palette but superb mastery of ink and gradients ranging from solid darks to lighter washes and lines.

Follow me this month for more masterworks using ink!

Eisen - Water Dragons

 #Eisen #dragon 

Lets finish off the Dragon series with this splendid Eisen Print !

These three toed water dragons are just as impressive as their five toed Imperial Kin despite being blue gray and not golden yellow. 

Such a wonderful composition too intertwining but not tangled spirals and curves full of energy and strength!

AUTUMN MOON

#autumnmoon, #moon, #shinhanga 

 Actually I have no idea what time of the year this image was set but it shows a full moon and its Autumn / Spring moon next festival and its gorgeous Shin Hanga Print!

Here's wishing any and all of my viewers readers and followers an enjoyable festival!

Don't overdo it with those Moon Cakes!

RED QING DRAGON

RED QING DRAGON 

 #dragon #Qing #ceramics

 This one of those masterpieces of Qing Ceramics that are almost too clever in their combination of technique and imagery. Why?

That particular red hue was quite difficult to achieve. Reds from either copper or iron had to have special firings within certain temperature ranges. In addition to the perfect coloring of the glaze and the detailed complex painting whoever made the pot sprigged carved or molded a raised area for the dragons! # different artisans and technicians combined their skills into this exquisite vessel. 

Dragons 3D

#dragons #sculpture  

DRAGONS 3D - A medley 

(in Asian sculptures) 

Dragons don't just feature on Ceramics Prints and Paintings. 

Here's some 3D imagery.

From Korea a sculpture in metal.

Vietnam a stone balustrade both sculpture and architecture 

this Japanese sculpture has movable parts  !

 and a second Vietnamese Dragon 

low relief ceramic 

Japanese Embroidered Dragon

JAPANESE EMBROIDERED DRAGONS

White and Gold Threads on a Red background. 

Note the variety of Stitch types used to create depth and texture.

More dragons yet to come !

 

Dragons in Tibetan ART

A Medley of Dragons from Tibet 

#dragons #tibet #tibetan #tibetanart 

 A pair of lively colorful dragons - note the different way of rendering clouds.

The Tibetans seem to have preferred their dragons speckled ?

though this pair are more like Chinese dragons but notice the distinct mountain peak motif! 

Notice the use of blue and white in this Tibetan work. Bold and beautiful!

Mongolian and other minority scripts

An example of several scripts being used side by side.

#savemongolianlanguage #mongolian #manchu #tibetan 

Once upon a time a calligrapher or perhaps a team of calligraphers got together and designed this sign for a buddhist temple in which you can see 4 different scripts Tibetan Mongolian Manchu and Chinese Hanzi arranged in a layout that allows all of them "equal" footing. 

Apparently the Sinicized Manchu Qing rulers had more respect for minority languages than certain modern Han and other bureaucrats in Inner Mongolia and Beijing  who are trying to back pedal on previous policies and lessen hours of Mongolian language instruction in schools in which the Mongolian language and script is suppose to be the PRIMARY Medium of education.

Personally as a student and user of a variety of scripts, Roman, Hanzi, and others, I have often wished we have had multi lingual instruction introduced at an earlier level of schooling.

But Australia only has one majority language of instruction you might object?

Yes but we support community and correspondence and other classes for minority languages many of which can be studied at HSC level allowing students credits towards university entry.

Okay not Mongolian the community is too small ... and sadly the Hokkien and Hakka speaking communities do not get the same recognition as Cantonese or Putonghua but 

DIVERSITY IS GOOD 

DIVERSITY INSPIRES GOOD DESIGN 

so if you see anyone posting on social media but Chinese or any other language  is the majority language support bilingualism. Multilingualism Too! 

I'll finish with another example of Han - Mongol cultural interchange leading to diversity and design.

Mongolian can be written with a pen or brush. Here we see a Han calligraphy technique applied to Mongol script. But typography is important too. With modern use of Unicode Mongolian and Chinese can be applied to a variety of usages street signs calligraphy BILINGUAL TEXT BOOKS 

so I type and encourage you to do so too 

#SAVEMONGOLIANLANGUAGE 

 

Benten with a Dragon

BENTEN with a DRAGON

A pleasingly elegant image of Benten the Japanese Buddhist equivalent of Sarasvati riding a dragon while playing her lute. 

Dragon Head Vase.

#dragon vase

TANG DYNASTY VASE WITH DRAGON HEAD HANDLES

We're so used with seeing dragons painted with cobalt blue on a white background but this plain sculptural use of just heads on the handles of this vase seems rather stark by contrast to the cloud dancing blue dragons of later ceramics. Simple but beautiful! Enjoy.

Kano Hogai - 2 dragons

#kano #dragons #japanese painting

TWO DRAGONS FIGHTING

I promised to identify the 3 artworks I shared in the last post. Here is the first.

This is one of those Kano paintings that could almost be mistaken for a Chinese work from a Ming or even Sung artist however it is Japanese a work by Kano Hogai depicting two dragons fighting.

A Choice of 3 Dragons

Here's a choice and test of three dragons.
Which of these comes from which Asian nation?

None of these were created in China. 

Over the next month I'll  tell you more details about them and other dragon art.

Let Us Consider Dragons

 Let Us Consider Dragons 

#dragons #chineseart 

My next sequence of posts will be about Dragons - 龍

You may have seen Dragons painted with cobalt blue in a white background. Its a common motif !

The image above is of a vessel created in the XuanDe Dynasty - an actual antiques and not one of the many modern copies and variants thereof.

However images of dragons appear thousands of years earlier. 

These are Oracle Bone characters.

Note the shape and size of the head. Jaws and a Crest or a Long head are always emphasized.

As in this Han Dynasty image 

Join me next time for more dragon images. Not just Chinese! I've also found dragons from Japan Korea and Vietnam to share with you. 

 

AUGUST 2020 THEMES

The theme for AUGUST 2020 will be Dragons ! 

An Multimedia Japanese Comb

#Gold #japaneselacquer #multimedia 

Gold lacquer wasn't always applied only to black backgrounds on wood. On this antique haircomb we see gold lacquer and shell combined. Whereas our ancestors would have valued brooches and hat pins or necklaces for a Japanese woman who could afford it haircombs usually  took the place of jewellery.

Note also how the use of the shell for wings and flowers contrasts with the gold leaves.

Zeshin Lacquer "Painting"

An Interesting piece for its mixture of techniques. The background seems to be a mixture of gold painted on plus a sprinkled layer and theres maki-e in the foreground but some mixture of lacquer with other pigments On the peak and pine branches.

The view is  the Tagonoura Beach Pines facing towards Fujisan

Chinese Gold Lacquer Box

The Japanese did not invnet using gold in Lacquer. Oh they refined its usage and technique in all sorts of beuatiful and wonderful ways developing maki-e and other techniques but while Chinese lacquer ware is best known for carved lacquet or inlay work with shell they did have a gold "engraving" technique.

This is a Ming Dynasty Yongle Reign Sutra Box 

and oh those poets ...

Another #Yoshitoshi print this time depicting Fujiwara no Kinto a famous Heian poet offering an unseen person a branch of plum blossom on a fan. This is a depiction of male beauty expressed as style and elegance. His black over-robe is a fine silk gauze? The under robe is a dark red and we see a glimpse of purple trousers and his footprints in the snow? 

and those splendid samurai

#samurai #japaneseprints #yoshitoshi

Another type of male beauty Japanese art describes and celebrates is that of warriors.

This was described as samurai on a moonlit patrol. I presume the moon is setting and thats a pale dawn sky or the moon is rising early ? There's soe wonderful red white contrasts. Note the naginata being used as a lance. Also and this is unusual its not a side or frontal view. We can see the rear of the armour. This is a working soldier on patrol not a kabuki actor posing on stage. 

I get the impression this is something Yoshitoshi saw maybe even sketched. Unfortunately the first draft drawings and sketches of Japanese artists print designers or painters rarely survive. 

Danjuro V as a townsman

#Shunsho #danjuro #japanese #print

Female Beauty was not the major theme of ukiyo-e prints. Actors were another favorite topic.

This is Danjuro V playing an Edo townsman depicted by Shunsho.

Despite the loose trousers and lack of sandals he is wearing a quite fashionable at the time over kimono, obi knotted in a male style, and stylish accessories. 

the beautiful boys again

Here's an 18th century print of a fashionable young Edo townsman carrying a lantern as he walks along a snow covered path to meet a lover. Yes this is a young man. Note the hair arrangement bound without combs and the plaid pattern on his outer robe a nd the tip of the one blade allowed to townsmen showing below his robe. Hakama were for more formal occassions!

Yoshitsune 3

#yoshitsune #ukiyo-e #japaneseprints

one more Yoshitsune print ! This is by #Yoshitoshi and shows the famous fight between #Benkei and a very young Yoshitsune at Gojo Bridge in Kyoto.

Given that Benkei was suppoe to be a warrior monk and Yoshitsune exiled to a temple this is probably not the clothes they may have actually worn. This is what a 19th century artist believed a Heian warrior monk and a young male aristocrat would have worn. Most of the detail may be fairly accurate though given depictions in scrolls with earlier dating.

Yoshitoshi has definitely gone for the beautiful boy look and it is a consistent theme used in other prints that Benkei is shown as very macho in contrast to Yoshitsune.

Yoshitsune as an Ideal of male beauty - Two

#yoshitsune regardless of however he actually looked like was idealised by later generations 

This is an actor playing him as a character in a #kabuki play in a very elegant costume. I think that the actor is wearing a wig meant to imply this is Yoshistsune as a young man as the hair is down and long BUT possibly yoshitsune as an older man semi retired. I am not sure which play this is from?

Note the aristocratic elegance and how #Kunisada saw late Heian era costume as depicted on stage.

Yoshitsune as an Ideal of male beauty _ One

#japaneseprints #ukiyo-e 

#yoshitsune is often depicted as an ideal of male beauty and often by contrasting him as a youth to #Benkei as in this #kiyonaga print

 

An EDO MALE fashionista

#ukiyo-e #edo #fashion 

While #bijinga is a frequent subject of #ukiyo-e prints fashionable young townsmen were also a theme!

This young fashion conscious Edo resident is depicted wearing a kimono with detailed imagery of the gods of thunder and lightning. 

The indigo coloring suggests this may be a summer yukata.

more of the boys next time!

The Beautiful Boy - One

You know what #bijinga is ? All those paintings and prints of courtesans geisha princesses and poets?

Lets' look at the boys ! Also later in the series some good looking guys!

I love this print by #Koryusai of a very handsome young samurai clearly with a crush on the equally pretty teahouse girl serving him? 

I'll also be looking at prints of famous poets and courtiers and others!