GUAN TONG _ MOUNTAIN

 I"m thinking about mountains and one of the mostfamous paintingsof a mountain is this one by GUAN TONG whichI haveposted about before but its such an amazing work

There's just so much in this scroll painting on silk. The clouds and mist the peaks and ridges the waterfall flowing down from the heights the trees in the bottom foreground the tonal gradient the touches of yellow on the leaves marking the season as Autumn.

Enjoy contemplating it. 

KASAGI TWO

 KASAGI TWO

Having you shown you the poem and a translation this time ... here's a poem "card" I made>

I may post this and a larger poster size version on Reb Bubble Deviantart or Patreon ... havnt decided where ...

The illustration was done using Inkscape plus some brush texture added in Gimp.

A note from next week due to a schedule change and lockdown I may only be able to post once a week instead of about every 4- 5 days as my volunteer hours may change if or when we go back to partial lockdown in Sydney and my PAID work hours ... well lets say it would be great if I had a lot more followers and hence some Adsense or sales income ?  

Kasagi Sequence One

 #kasagi #waka #japanesepoetry #fujiwarashunzei #shunzei #samidare #kumogakuretsutsu 

KASAGI SEQUENCE 

I will be posting about this poem here and some illustrations inspired by it over on my Patreon.

This is one of those poems that seem quite simple until you analyse and translate it and realise the skill involved.

Starts off quite simply 

samidare      so early summer rain in May but then 

minakami masaru the rain is overwhelming everything ?

izumigawa spring river ?  origin river ? er no 

it took me 2 weeks of research to find out that Izumigawa is an old name for what is now known as the Kizugawa river south of Kyoto 

and the next line seems simple kasaki yama  okay Mount Kasagi in modern Japanese but enter it as a google search term and you may get Kasagiyama near Ena in Gifu! 

so is it flooding or just heavy rain or mist or fog rising from the river 

Kasagiyama is a place you go to for cherry blossom viewing and pilgrimages to an old Shingon buddhist temple and sightseeing various boulders or climbing on them.

Perhaps Shunzei was there for a buddhist retreat for look how he ends the poem 

kumogakuretsutsu kumo + gakure +tsutsu something like continually disappearing ?

so the mist or rain is fluctuating or is it a double reference implying he's there in a hermitage a hidden place maybe looking down upon the river valley?

Elegantly simple yet every reading rises another question ?

Or perhaps I just need to study a lot more waka poetry? 

A Summer rain medley.

 japaneseprints #ukiyo-e #prints #summer rain #rain 

A Summer Rain Medley

Here are some prints contrasting various ways of depicting summer rain.

Shigenobu Night Rain at Akasaka 

Hiroshige Summer Rain Suhara 

Kiyonaga Storm Scene

MENG HAO Ren's Spring Morning POEM

 #menhaoren #chinese poetry #spring morning

(If you are not seeing chinese characters you need to check why your browser and computers font and language settings are not reading the unicode I entered!)

MENG HAO RAN POEM

SPRING MORNING

Mèng Hào Rán - Chún Xiaŏ

Chún Mián Bù Jué Xiaŏ

春 眠 不 覺 暁

spring sleep not sense dawn

Chù chù Wén Tí Niaŏ

處 處 聞 啼 鳥

everywhere hear crying bird

Yè Laì Fēng Yŭ Shēng

夜 來 風 雨 聲

night came wind rain sound

Huā Luò Zhī Duō Shaŏ

花 落 知 多 少

flower fall know how many ?

This is not a full translation or notes 

( you can see a different but similar set notes over on my metousia patreon  and also get a pdf for your one usage)

I keep thinking of something different to write everytime I review my notes )

because I want you to think about the main meanings not compare this to the many other translation and consider what is possibly the most import word in the poem - the verb TI in the second line.

The birds are not singing or flying they are CRYING 

The next line wind rain sound invokes a storm 

which tells us why the birds are crying and maybe why the poet was slow to awake and rise 

and he finishes with a question to himself and us

how many flowers fell last night?

not how pretty spring plum is but how many flowers fall and unspoken what else was damaged if the birds are so upset he describes them as crying ?! 

That simple question makes this a work of genius 

You are welcome to suggest or recommend different translations !

Hydrangeas in Lacquer

HYDRANGEAS IN LACQUER

#hydrangeas #lacquer #japaneselacquer 

I was looking for images of hydrangeas that was painted or printed and found this gorgeous Japanese box to share.

 

HYDRANGEAS PAINTING

HYDRANGEAS 

are a beloved summer flower in Japan 

#hydrangeas #summer #rimpa #painting 

This is probably a student of Korin?