learning to print

tadamasa hayashi came to paris to assist and translate in the setting up of the paris universal exhibition of 1878.




at the time that he came, wood- block prints were quite devalued in japan, so he quickly realized that he could fill his cases with them, and sell them as art,
at art prices, in france.

thus were many people in paris introduced to japanese prints, and began collecting them.




one of these was henri riviere.







he not only bought from hayashi, but they became close friends, and hayashi became a patron for riviere.





the friendship included instruction of a sort as to printmaking methods, but it also included the recognition that riviere had,

without knowing it, revived ancient japanese printmaking methods for his own work.







when, after a close friendship of fifteen years, hayashi returned to japan, and died soon thereafter, riviere gave up printmaking.





yes, many others, as we've discussed, embraced what japan had to teach.












but to my eyes, henri riviere was japonisme's mikado.





(don't miss the wonderful photogravure site; the hiroshige site that has a permanant place in the sidebar; and the comprehensive henri riviere site.)

dream birds

BIRDS APPEARING IN A DREAM

One had feathers like a blood-streaked koi,

another a tail of color-coded wires.

One was a blackbird stretching orchid wings,

another a flicker with a wounded head.


All flew like leaves fluttering to escape,

bright, circulating in burning air,

and all returned when the air cleared.

One was a kingfisher trapped in its bower,


deep in the ground, miles from water.

Everything is real and everything isn’t.

Some had names and some didn’t.

Named and nameless shapes of birds,


at night my hand can touch your feathers

and then I wipe the vernix from your wings,

you who have made bright things from shadows,

you who have crossed the distances to roost in me.


Michael Collier

"Birds Appearing in a Dream", from Dark Wild Realm: Poems by Michael Collier. Copyright © 2006 by Michael Collier. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1

(this image on the right is from this blog, which frequently displays wonderful portuguese and/or spanish japonisme images from magazines and books. additionally, he has documented with word and image the "portuguese lafcadio hearn.")

RATTY & HIS FRIENDS

'Ratty,' said the Mole suddenly, one bright summer morning, 'if you
please, I want to ask you a favour.'

The Rat was sitting on the river bank, singing a little song. He had just composed it himself, so he was very taken up with it, and would not pay proper attention to Mole or anything else.

Since early morning he had been swimming in the river, in company with his friends the ducks. And when the ducks stood on their heads suddenly, as ducks will, he would dive down and tickle their necks, just under where their chins would be if ducks had chins, till they were forced to come to the surface again in a hurry, spluttering and angry and shaking their feathers at him, for it is impossible to say quite ALL you feel when your head is under water. At last they implored him to go away and attend to his own affairs and leave them to mind theirs. So the Rat went away, and sat on the river bank in the sun, and made up a song about them, which he called

'DUCKS' DITTY.'

All along the backwater,
Through the rushes tall,
Ducks are a-dabbling,
Up tails all!

Ducks' tails, drakes' tails,
Yellow feet a-quiver,
Yellow bills all out of sight
Busy in the river!

Slushy green undergrowth
Where the roach swim--
Here we keep our larder,
Cool and full and dim.

Everyone for what he likes!
WE like to be
Heads down, tails up,
Dabbling free!

High in the blue above
Swifts whirl and call--
WE are down a-dabbling
Up tails all!


'I don't know that I think so VERY much of that little song, Rat,' observed the Mole cautiously. He was no poet himself and didn't care who knew it; and he had a candid nature.

'Nor don't the ducks neither,' replied the Rat cheerfully. 'They say, "WHY can't fellows be allowed to do what they like WHEN they like and AS they like, instead of other fellows sitting on banks and watching them all the time and making remarks and poetry and things about them? What NONSENSE it all is!" That's what the ducks say.'

'So it is, so it is,' said the Mole, with great heartiness.


from wind in the willows, written in 1908 by kenneth grahame. i got the text here but the whole book with some illustrations is here.

thus reads a short section of a collection of stories by laura bancroft called 'twinkle and chubbins.'

it was illustrated by maginel wright barney, someone who clearly had a knowledge of what was going on in japanese prints.

and well she should. her brother had quite a collection. his name was frank lloyd.



author of the book laura bancroft had
quite a well-known brother as well, l frank baum. well, laura bancroft had a brother but the author of the book did not, because the author of the book was l frank baum himself, using his sister's name.

(interestingly, jays and crows are related as well.)














just as i had dis- cov- ered this little gem (which all of the rest of you probably knew already), pk ran a wonderful oz entry by l frank, with illustrations by ww denslow (seen here as well). so benefit by the wonderful links he, as is his wont, delivers to us.

and let me point you to the complete 'twinkle and chubbins.'

kids

some half- formed thoughts on children, and women, and both of them in life, and both of them in art, etc.

i've been look- ing at these ima- ges, trying to find images from before 1850, thinking about how women and children are pictured.

it seems that until that date, both were formal, in western images, but in japanese images, children seemed more like children.


this one is from 1850, in case you need a reminder.


i have no conclusions at this point...




wondered about whether or not women and children were being seen as property in the west, but couldn't quite get my mind to fit around a concept of women being more 'equal' in japan....

so can you prove me wrong? have you got any guesses? any answers?