I'm lonely and it's autumn

I'M LONELY AND IT'S AUTUMN

An irreverent look at themes in the #HyakuNinIsshu
#waka #autumn #japanesepoetry #heianpoetry

The#Hyaku-Nin-Isshu anthologyof 100 #Heian poets includes many of the major and popular subjects and themes that appear in that era's poetry.

Here's a tally of certain themes

I'm very clever at with word play and double meanings 15X

OH the Moon the moon preferably rising over mountains 10X

Perhaps because even the most poetry obsessed Courtier had gotten fed up with them the two common themes of
Yet another pun on oosaka and ausaka barrier and Naniwa beach and bamboo nodes
curiously only appear twice

Maple leaves make early autumn tolerable and an excuse for a picnic 6X

My sleeve is wet with rain or tears
will someone please invent the umbrella and tissues  4x

OH the white on the whiteness!
UNseasonal snow or frost  contrasting with something matte white or dark 5X

WAH I'm all alone expect for my house boy and the other servants and the peasants down the bottom of the hill from my "hut" or my actual country house with spring and garden. 18X

Pathetic annoying animal and bird noises ... bloody rutting stags etc 3X

Late Autumn is cold windy and dreary especially at dusk and I am very sad 9X

I like Japanese poetry but sometimes its easy to see why the Japanese of the Tokugawa era developed Haiku!?

Hokusai Cherry Blossom Print

A HUGE thank you and shout out to everyone sharing photos on social media from Japan of this years cherry blossom !!! #hanami #sakurami #cherryblossom #sakura #hokusai

Sakura Time

#sakura #ying #cherry #hanzi #kanji #unihan

Cherry blossom time !

PLUM Technozi

#plum #mume 

Benten Riding a Dragon

 I just really like this #japanese #print of #Benten riding a #dragon

Its uses a restrained palette of minimal colors, black, green and red and hues and  tints thereof  and a composition of overlapping loops and curves.

#ukioyo-e style and technique at its best.

IDW and East Asian goddesses

For #idw 2018 I'm sharing a medley of East Asian deities

A classic #dehua statuette of #guanyin

Kuanyin as protectoress of children ... with dogs? Why I have no idea but I like the image!

The Japanese depicted Lakhshimi as a tang princess 

I have a special fondness for Benten 

This is a #surimono #ukiyo-e #print 

Back to China for the final image 

The Mother of Lightning

Dog Watching a Bird

#yearofthedog #japanesebookcover

We tend to forget #ukiyo-e is a design style applied not just to prints of actors or landscapes or pinup geisha girls but also other paper objects like this book cover showing a dog watching a bird flying overhead.

The artist is not Hokusai or Hiroshige and the line work is rough but it has depicted the personality of the dog and a look of keen intelligence.