Japanese Art - Blog Posts

見返り美人図

Today I decided to dress and pose as a famous painting: 見返り美人図 otherwise known as Beauty Looking Back.

This painting was a singular stand alone piece made by Hishikawa Moronobu who is mostly known for his innovative ways regarding the method of coloring for ukiyo-e woodblock. This method was very influential due to how my house simply only had black print before then.

To showcase the painting’s popularity even more so, the “Beauty Looking Back” painting was adopted as the pattern for the first Japanese postage stamp after WW2 in 1948.

Ｇｕｎｄａｍ　７ Ｅ－４２１

So pretty!~

'Bird and Peonies' (Edo period) by an unknown Japanese artist.

Woodblock print.

Image and text information courtesy MFA Boston.

I love Fujio Kito's photographs of playgrounds around Japan. There are so many artful and thoughtful designs for play spaces and structures throughout the Japanese cultural landscape.

東京都狛江市多摩川住宅ニ号棟

中央公園

※多摩川住宅ニ号等も建替えが決定しました。

★多摩川住宅の写真展をしたいので、調布市・狛江市で団地の公園遊具の写真展を開催できるスペースを探してます。オススメの場所などありましたらご連絡ください！

#公園遊具　#公園　#playground #park #playsculpture #artwork #photoism #tokyo #japantravel

#多摩川住宅　#多摩川　#団地　#石の山　#調布　#狛江

Jiro Yoshihara, Please Draw Freely, 1956. Paint and marker on wood. Installation view during the Outdoor Gutai Art Exhibition in Ashiya Park, Ashiya, 27 July – 4 August, 1956. 

Yoshihara was a leading member of the Japanese avant-garde Gutai Group of visual artists, known for their physical and oft-confrontational artworks. A lesser discussed aspect of their legacy is their contributions to art education, which truly highlight the potency and potential of communal creativity. I wrote about the latter aspect on Artfully Learning in a post called "The Gutai Group: Play, Pedagogy and Possibility." Read it here: https://theartsandeducation.wordpress.com/2022/08/03/the-gutai-group-play-pedagogy-and-possibility/

Art - Kawai Gyokudo (1873-1957)

Books that I bought for May. I've already had three of them on my tablet, and since I liked them, I decided to buy their paperbacks. Siddhartha and Kitchen are the ones that I'll be reading for the first time. I bought some stuff from Daiso as well, as there was a sale going on there.

I’ve defiled the very first page of my new journal—the one destined to be my sacred commonplace book. A grand beginning, now tainted beyond repair. Truly, my talent knows no bounds.(sarcasm, of course)

I tend to get a bit dramatic...... nevermind.

Intriguing...

Have any nightmares lately?

This figurine represents the Baku (獏 or 貘). The baku’s story originated in Chinese mythology as the mo (貘), believed to resemble a giant panda. It later evolved into a nightmare-warding figure in Japan.

Early depictions illustrate the baku as a chimera with the trunk and tusks of an elephant, the ears of a rhinoceros, the tail of a cow, the body of a bear, and the paws of a tiger. While this version was said to ward off pestilence and evil, its dream-devouring ability emerged later in Japanese culture. By the late 18th century, the baku as known as the guardian of sleep. One legend describes how a child waking from a bad dream could call out, “Baku-san, come eat my dream,” repeating it three times to summon the baku.

Folklore warns that calling the baku too often could have consequences—if left unsatisfied, it might consume not just bad dreams but also the person’s hopes and desires.

Image: Baku, Mythical Animal. 18th century. White porcelain (Hirado ware), H. 7/8 in. (2.2 cm); L. 1 7/8 in. (4.8 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Chôkôsai Eishô

Young Man with Falcon. c. 1799, woodblock print, 39 x 26 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Tigresa

Raízes vermelhas ( Akane  茜色)

Ayanami - nanquim, #0 2019

茜色の色情報

色の名前茜色

読み/綴りあかねいろ

系統色名dp-R（濃い赤）

マンセル値4R 3.5/11

webcolor#b7282d

RGBR(赤)：183　 G(緑)：40　 B(青)：45

CMYKC(シアン)：0　 M(マゼンタ)：90　

Y(イエロー)：70　 K(ブラック)：30

Atsuko Tanaka (1932-2005) — Gate of Hell   (vinyl paint on canvas, 1965-1969)

The Incarnations of Kimiko Yoshida

LOUIS XIV AS THE RISING SUN IN "LE BALLET DE LA NUIT" AT VERSAILLES. SELF-PORTRAIT, 2010. COURTESY PACO RABANNE

SULTAN SALADIN THE GREAT. SELF-PORTRAIT, 2010. COURTESY PACO RABANNE

GODDESS OF WAR ATHENA BY KLIMT. SELF-PORTRAIT, 2010.   COURTESY PACO RABANNE

WISE KING MELCHIOR BY MANTEGNA. SELF-PORTRAIT, 2010. COURTESY PACO RABANNE

THE GOLDEN BRIDE FROM FEZ, SELF-PORTRAIT 2005. COURTESY OF THE ISRAEL MUSUEM, JERUSALEM

QUEEN OF FRANCE MARIE DE' MEDICI BY RUBENS. SELF-PORTRAIT, 2010. COURTESY PACO RABANNE

EL CONQUISTADOR HERNAN CORTES AS EL DORADO. SELF-PORTRAIT, 2010. COURTESY PACO RABANNE

LAST SAMURAI KATSUMOTO. SELF-PORTRAIT, 2010. COURTESY OF PACO RABANNE.

THE TORERO BRIDE WITH A BLACK SUIT OF LIGHTS , REMEMBERING PICASSO. SELF-PORTRAIT 2006.

ASSOMPTION OF VIRGIN MARY BY TINTORETTO. SELF-PORTRAIT, 2010. COURTESY OF PACO RABANNE.

SAINT AUGUSTIN BY EL GRECO. SELF-PORTRAIT, 2010. COURTESY OF PACO RABANNE.

WOMAN OF ALGIERS BY DELACROIX. SELF-PORTRAIT, 2007-2009

PHARAON BY GUSTAVE DORÉ, SELF-PORTRAIT, 2007-2009

SISTINE MADONNA BY RAPHAEL. SELF-PORTRAIT, 2010. COURTESY OF PACO RABANNE.

KING OF FRANCE FRANCOIS I BY JEAN CLOUET. SELF-PORTRAIT, 2010.COURTESY OF PACO RABANNE.

JUDITH BY CRANACH THE ELDER. SELF-PORTRAIT, 2010. COURTESY OF PACO RABANNE.

THE CAPRICIOUS GIRL BY WATTEAU. SELF-PORTRAIT, 2010. COURTESY OF PACO RABANNE.

ZAPATA BY DIEGO RIVERA. SELF-PORTRAIT, 2010. COURTESY OF PACO RABANNE.

QUEEN MARIANA OF AUSTRIA BY VELASQUEZ. SELF-PORTRAIT, 2010. COURTESY OF PACO RABANNE.

HECATE, THE GREEK GODDESS OF THE MOON AND THE SPIRIT OF THE DEAD, BY WILLIAM BLAKE. SELF-PORTRAIT, 2010

DON QUIXOTE BY PICASSO. SELF-PORTRAIT, 2010. COURTESY OF PACO RABANNE.

THE SILVER BERBER BRIDE, MOROCCO, EARLY XX th CENTURY. SELF-PORTRAIT 2005. COURTESY OF THE ISRAEL MUSUEM, JERUSALEM

THE MEXICAN BRIDE,  SELF PORTRAIT 2012

THE RED EGYPTIAN BRIDE (HARRY WINSTON). SELF-PORTRAIT, 2008

THE BRIDE GRAND COMMANDEUR DE LA LEGION D'HONNEUR. SELF-PORTRAIT 2006

THE RED PALESTINIAN BRIDE , EARLY XX th CENTURY. SELF-PORTRAIT 2005. COURTESY OF THE ISRAEL MUSUEM, JERUSALEM

THE MAO BRIDE RED GUARD RED. SELF-PORTRAIT, 2009

"A fundamental part of Japanese culture is linked to the notion of disappearance.

Unlike the West, in Japan we use makeup in order to disappear, to erase our identity. The basic idea behind my makeup is tied to the geisha’s traditional use of a ghostly-white makeup, called ” doran ” which leaves only the outline of her eyes and bright red lips visible. Makeup in Japan is not perceived as a way of making a woman become more beautiful, but rather as a way of transforming her into an abstraction of a woman. She becomes an “idea of a woman “, rather than an “ideal woman.” It is a way of dying." text by Barbara Oudiz

Transformation, Metamorphism, Shape Shifter. These are the words that come into my mind when I look at Kimiko Yoshida and her impacting self portraits. All the pictures use always the same setting, same subject, same lighting, same framing. She does her own make-up, lighting and design using a Hasselbald camera with no retouching or editing. 

I find these images so deep and mesmerising, the Series "Painting, Self- Portrait" where she transforms herself into people from famous historical portraits with pieces from Paco Rabanne's Haute Couture collections works of art in themselves are my personal favourites. 

Do go to her website and see her extensive portafolio of work I had a hard time not putting all her work on this post, then this would just be pages and pages long. I spent hours reading, there are also lots of in depth articles on her and great interviews, Kimiko you are a fascinating lady!

Am hoping that she will do a show in London someday soon. 

All images Via Kimiko Yoshida