Tiger on a Kimono

 This #japanese #ukiyoe #print shows an actor in character wearing what is probably a handpainted kimono perhaps a special creation just for one play? I suspect hand painting rather than stencilled cloth even that this is a theatrical costume and the way the tiger curves around the robe probably so the audience could see the design on all sides as the actor moved across the stage.

I'm not sure even the most boldest Tokyo male 18th c. fashionistas would have dared to copy this as street wear?

Korean Tiger

 Traditional  Korean art also has Tigers. One wonders if the scholar painter might have seen a tiger from a distance as this is somewhat more accurate than depictions based on seeing a tigerskin rug?

Tibetan Art - a White Tiger

#tibetan #manuscript #tiger #whitetiger  

This is a page from a #Tibetan manual of geomancy 

I can't read Tibetan but its a good example of Tibetan script and one of the few images I could find of white tigers that are pre-modern

Strange Southern Tigers

 STRANGE SOUTHERN TIGERS

Its the year of the Water Tiger so lets look at the character used to write the word and the word itself.

So why did I know this post strange southern tigers

Experts know or can made a reasonable hypothesis that while a tiger is called HU in Modern Chinese it probably had an older form of ho or hwo 

Tiger is Ho or Hwo in SinoKorean Ko in SinoJapanese and Vietnamese has SinoViet Ho but also Khai 

Cantonese and Hakka have fu 

Thai has khla Burmese kya but older inscriptions have the word as kla and Khmer has klaa 

WE know form changes in other languages an a becoming o is not unusual but while Burmese is a SinoTibetan language Thai has a much looser connection and Khmer and Vietnamese are AustroAsiatic.

So what do the similarities mean?

Let us guess that once upon a time some thousands of years ago there was a word perhaps #khaal or khlaa or kla used to name tigers. Some later languages dropped the L others changed kh to k and then h 

(Historical linguistics yes this is meant to be a very simple explanation for beginners hence the lack of special symbols - I'm trying to "sketch" a general outline) 

So this means three possibilities 

 there was a proto language proceeding SinoTibetan and AustroAsiatic spoken across China and SEasia 

or the speakers of ProtoAustrasiatic and ProtoSinoTibetan lived in communities close enough together to allow regular trading despite the mountainous terrain. 

or that southwards migration of certain groups begun earlier than currently thought and that Austroasiatic languages were spoken in Southern China until a much later date than currently thought

or all three possibilities are linked 

All that possibilities suggested by one word?

possibilities ...

Rosetsu Tiger

 #rosetsu #tiger #yearofthetiger

If there's one subject Chinese and Japanese painters did not excel at sadly it's depicting tigers.

This is a South Chinese Tiger 
Thank you whoever added this to Wikimedia Commons!

BUT 

Chinese artists even centuries ago when the tiger population was much larger do not seen to have studied tigers in the wild or captivity?

There are various reasons for this.

Tigers are usually nocturnal hunters that hunt as individuals for in VERY small family groups and seem to prefer forests though its possible this is an adaptation to avoiding humans. 

In China the South China tiger population was shrinking for centuries and took a further down turn during the Qing dynasty when rifles were introduced and there's an ongoing debate as to how many Tigers survive in ANY part of CHINA in the wild. Some probably do. The ones who have learnt to avoid humans!

There were probably tigers in some parts of the north but again forest clearing and hunting by humans.

I do wonder if there were once "white" tigers in the parts of China near Tibet given the White Tiger of the West?

Tigers despite the Japanese having a word for tiger don't seem to have ever lived in Japan. 

However Japanese artists seen to have seen imported tiger skins but thought of tigers as very large cats?

You may have seen other cropped photos of this painting by Nagasawa Rosetsu that do not show how large the screen painting is. Rosetsu's tiger is a splendid energetic beast indeed larger than life but no more housecat though with this and other images I suspect a study of house cats.

As its the year of the Tiger I will be sharing more Tiger Art as I find it.

Do consider following me for more ?

the year of the tiger is coming