Am I to gang ba-are-foot?

JAPANESE CHILDREN are accustomed to lots or toys. They have their games and nursery rhymes galore. Their "Mother Goose" is centuries older than ours; in fact, it is said that Japanese mothers used to recite its jingles long before Columbus discovered America. (new york times 1908)

どんぐり ころころ どんぶりこ!
おいけに はまって さあ たいへん!
どじょうが でてきて "こんにちは!"
"ぼっちゃん, いっしょに あそびましょ!"

Acorn bowl is small and round thing rolling!

Now you go out into the most!
Loach have been in the "Hello!"
"Son, ASOBIMASHO together!"

も~もたろさん, ももたろさん
おこしに つけた きびだんご
ひとつ わたしに くださいな

あ~げましょう, あげましょう
これから ぼくと おにたいじ
ついて~ くるなら あげましょう

- MOTARO also said, she MOMOTARO
TSUKETAKI to come BIDANGO
One is to me, please

I ~ GEMASHOU,'ll
Fetus in the future and I
If you happen to come about --

あめ あめ ふれ ふれ かあさんが~
蛇の目(じぁのめ) で お迎え (おむかえ) うれしいな ~
ピッチ ピッチ! チャップ チャップ! ラン ラン ラン!

Bandy bandy candy from a candy KAASAN
Bull's-eye (ANOME time) to pick up (meeting) is pleased to
Pitch Pitch! Chap chap! Run Run Run!

むすんで　ひらいて
手をうって　むすんで

また　ひらいて　手をうって
その手を上に

むすんで　ひらいて
手をうって　むすんで

また　ひらいて　手をうって
あの手を下に

むすんで　ひらいて
手をうって　むすんで

MUSUN to come flying in
MUSUN hand in the fire

The thick hands that come flying
On their hands

MUSUN to come flying in
MUSUN hand in the fire

The thick hands that come flying
I get to the bottom

MUSUN to come flying in
MUSUN hand in the fire

forgive me forgive me

the translations are google's
they're senseless indeed --
please help if you can!
but no more senseless
than the english ones
with meanings lost in their births.

but for you, dear reader, they're gifts
i hope you enjoy them.
the whole book, a volland, of course,
is here. much more on the japanese rhymes are here.

drawings were in children's books: the rhymes belong to each culture alone, but the earliest japonisme -- greenaway, caldecott, and crane were far earlier than richardson, but the tradition is clear.

the light returns!

volland ◆ redux & farewell

In 1914, Rachael Elmer, a successful artist and book illustrator, decided to create post cards for the city she loved and had adopted as her home. Her efforts would result in the first American published, artist-drawn post cards.

Before ... marriage, Rachael had studied for several semesters at the New York Art Students League with eminent professors, the likes of Childe Hassam, Winston Cox, and John Henry Twachtman [and arthur wesley dow!]. Now she was using what she learned from the giants of American Impressionism to create her own views of New York City.





In 1914, after an exhausting search, Mrs. Elmer found the P. F. Volland Company of Chicago as a publisher for her post cards. The twelve-card set named the New York Art Lover's series, was packaged in an oaktag folder with a twist-string tie, and within weeks of publication the cards were selling in many upscale New York City boutiques and souvenir shops for 25 cents.

Mrs. Elmer's second set of post cards was published in Burlington, Vermont, in 1916 as part of the Biennial Celebration of the Association of Women Painters, Artists and Sculptors. The set included six creative woodcut block prints, each with a unique post card back. The views are the Times Building, the Stadium at City College, the Statue of Liberty, Grant's Tomb, the Woolworth Building and a very imaginative image of the Brooklyn Bridge.


Eighteen post cards—the sum total of Rachael Elmer's post card artistry. With that effort she changed the world of American post cards.

Along with others in the Robinson family, Mrs. Elmer is considered an American pioneer in the truest sense. She brought beauty to the black and white world of the American post card. She died on February 12, 1919, a victim of the Spanish Influenza epidemic. 1

E. B. White, "TERSE VERSE," The New Yorker, April 20, 1935, p. 32 April 20, 1935 Issue

ONWARD & UPWARD WITH THE ARTS about the greeting card business. A little old lady who lived in Louisiana, set out from her home in the south and journeyed all the way to Joliet to see Mr. P. F. Volland, of the Volland Co. She presented him with a motto for Washington's Birthday. Mr. Volland, impressed with the length of the journey, accepted it and drew up a contract on royalty basis. The motto flopped. The authoress, back in Louisiana, received no pay and began to suffer from delusions of fraud. After some months she again entered the office of Mr. Volland, and shot him dead. 2

volland

all of this from one publisher, from the early part of the last century. there are varying stories about volland's history, but someone there was extraordinarily wise and very tuned in to the design pulse of the moment.

i don't think there were any other publishers who featured such undiluted japonisme on such a regular basis, and thank goodness for them.

illustrators featured:

maginel wright enright
janet laura scott
m t "penny" ross
johnny gruelle (of raggedy ann fame)
katharine sturges dodge

find the whole books for many of these (and many more) here. just do a search for 'volland' in the publisher space.