Lacquer as a Verb

LACQUER AS A VERB

#hanzi #kanji #nurimono #lacquer #japanese #chinese

Copyright Julie Vaux 2016

 

Inro Ojime Set

#Netsuke #inro #ojime

Photos and Museum displays of Netsuke and Inro don't always show the whole set of Netsuke Inro and Ojime and the cord joining the three.

Partly this is because the collector acquired an incomplete set as a "curio" or the netsuke dates to the late 19th century when they started being made and sold separately as objects of art and souvenirs but netsuke are meant to have a function. Sometimes the Inro just has a cord or a netsuke without an ojime or vice versa.

This first image shows how an #Inro opens up to reveal an inner box.

and here we see an #inro with cord and #ojime bead.

LACQUER

#kanji #hanzi #lacquer

Copyright Julie Vaux 2016 

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Followers and Viewers I am considering doing a print collection?

Would you buy a book ebook or print  if I put it on lulu ?

Or Patreon individual pages?

Monkey ART Four Mori Sosen

Two  #MoriSosen paintings.
#japanesepaintings #yearofthemonkey #monkey

Mori Sosen is regarded as the grand master of the monkey as a theme in Japanese painting.

My first choice is an image of two monkeys watching a tiny crab and by way of contrast for my second choice a monkey trained to perform a shinto dance which supposedly expelled demons and bad luck.

Both of these images show how carefully Sosen observed wild and tame monkeys and his mastery of detail and brushwork contrasting line work with areas of fine detail.

We are now into the third month of the year of the Monkey.

I hope it continues to be a fortunate one for you.

Year of the Monkey - MONKEY ART THREE

#yearofthemonkey #monkey #nikko #threemonkeys

This relief sculpture at #Nikko Shrine seems to be the oldest known depiction of the Three Monkeys theme drawing on Tendai Buddhism ...probably?

If you have or have seen a netsuke inro print or okimono using this theme is the ancestor ...speaking of which ... the Art Gallery of South Australia has a delightful example.

Year of the Monkey- Monkey Art TWO

#yearofthemonkey #shibata zeshin #monkey #japanese painting

MONKEY ART TWO

I've posted several times about #ShibataZeshin an 19th century Japanese artist designer who worked in multiple media, lacquer, painting, and print design.

He was trained as a lacquer worker but his teachers noticed his brush skills and encouraged him to study calligraphy and painting.

This is an example of his work on a silk scroll

Note how he creates depth and tone in black and white using quite traditional methods and motifs yet combining techniques and methods from not just the Kano school that dominated art education at the time but other schools too! 

All on a foundation of solid yet subtle brush work with wash and line !

East or West Drawing and Observation is Important! 

WHY GIBBONS CRY

#gibbons #habitatloss #China #poetry #tangpoetry

MuQi Gibbons 

Several major #Tang #chinese poets and many other poets major and minor mention the howling of #monkeys however the actual #hanzi Yuan (see prior post)should be translated as gibbon.

This is one of the many reasons #gibbons cry.

I do wonder how many of those writers give serious thought as to why gibbons cry ... probably not from having to hear poets recite verse though that would be a great topic for a cartoon ... irate gibbons shrieking at some poet reciting verse?

Tang poetry suggests Gibbons and other primates had a much wider vaster range of habitats in the Tang period and that they had learnt to avoid human archers nets and other traps by retreating up into high valleys over river gorges or faraway up in the hills.

The first but not the last mention of gibbons in the CHU CI suggests they lived in the WUSHAN range along the Yangtze river and other poets refer to this too.

However Wang Wei twice mentions hearing gibbons or some kind of primate near his estate much further north.

The Tang dynasty poet who perhaps mentions gibbons the most is LI Bai / Li PO. He also mentions seeing or hearing gibbons in areas where they are never seen today!

Li Bai saw or heard them near White Emperor City on the Yangtze, near Huangshan, near Nanking, at Ch'iu P'u in Anhui and other places and refers to them in his Road to Shu poem.

Li HO mentions them being on Wushan amidst flowers and bamboo.

Gao Shi mentions gibbons on Wushan.

Pao Chao refers to Gibbons on LUshan in Sichuan.

Men HaoJen and some other poets mention seeing / hearing them in Chekiang.

I do wonder how many of these poets actually saw gibbons or how many were simply using standard phrases that neatly filled a line to complete a chinese meter?

Do Gibbons howl at being a cliche?

Probably NOT

(and yes I am teasing)

However a more serious issue is that those gibbons were probably howling crying whatever to complain about humans being in their territory?

With good cause.

Google gibbon habitats and china!

Gibbons are now an endangerd species!

In this year of the Monkey I will share more poetry and art featuring gibbons and monkeys from China and Japan but what a pity there seems to be so little mention of the plight of primate species in Modern China?