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!

bells are ringing

Ring Your Bell for Peace

Sunday Dec 21 • 12 noon (wherever you are)

think • wish • pray • meditate for peace
then ring your bell for one minute

more info at ringthebellsofpeace.com

gifts of the season • 季節の贈り物

many years ago a woman i only slightly knew emailed me. "you're really into japanese prints, aren't you? there's a used book up at pegasus you might like." i don't even know how she knew. i just know she was right.

the collection of hiroshi yoshida's complete works has remained one of my treasures all these years since. now you can experience something like that as well.

pomegranate has released a series of books absolutely essential to any student of this blog's subject, and the first, shin hanga, has some of the best and most stunningly reproduced selections of his works i've seen since.

the shin hanga book is enhanced with beautifully reproduced works by toshi yoshida and ohara koson as well, and numerous other eastern and western printmakers we've covered here (and some we haven't!). the accompanying essay placing that moment into world and cultural history is written by barry till, curator of the asian prints department of the art gallery of greater victoria in british columbia.

accompanying this are three additional books including one of gustave baumann's prints of the southwest which is, again, a treasure of images that are rarely bound and reprinted so beautifully into a book. joseph traugott, curator at the new mexico museum of art, also includes related baumann's contemporaries with some rarely-viewed images, and baumann's own hard-to-find pre-print watercolors.

find the other two books here and here.

on the 183rd day of christmas

on the first day of christmas, santa got a little confused, you know. too much nog. he used the eggs.

on the second day of christmas my true love gave to me cyclamen. and i will tell you, these things last forever. you take them for done-for and they surprise you again.

on the third day of christmas

on the fourth day

on the fifth day of christ- mas, my true love gave to me this lovely little mouse portrait. it's unusual for her work (that i've seen) in that the mice are more fully fleshed rather than drawn. yet she manages to capture their glee and curiosity nonetheless.

aren't these geese for the sixth completely wonderful??! found at mr door tree's valuable blog. this artist was new to me, but the blog features at least two of his books, every illustration a wonder.

on the seventh day of christmas... courtesans! excuse me? and yet they're dear, are they not? perhaps they intend to begin singing.

and in a truly playful spirit christmas was extended, first to high numbers, and then to infinity. it extended throughout the year.

or at least until the sun began to go away again. then it was our job to keep that light alive.

influence

there is only one problem with hannah sigur's beautiful new book the influence of japanese art on design.

it's not the choices of images; they are throughout wonderful selections, often selections rarely seen in books on this subject.

and it's certainly not the content. ms sigur manages enormous amounts of historical detail with dexterity and grace. she's clearly fascinated, and it's contageous. in fact, the depth of these discussions are as poetic as they are comprehensive.

no, the problem is something you may have already noticed: the images here are only minimally smaller than the ones in the actual book. these gorgeous illustrations are all but lost to my old eyes, as is the type.

visual clarity has been sacrificed to lean and stunning design: wide empty margins beg the question: couldn't you have had smaller margins and bigger pictures, larger type?

still, i must admit, there are enough treasures in this volume to gratify any enthusiast, and the softly glowing metallic cover makes it an appealing gift indeed. from gibbs-smith.

it was all going on all at once

"We [poster artists] were young and swimming in the same socio-political milieu that produced the rock bands, the drug culture & the sexual revolution. All this was going on in a very small part of the world, and it was all going on all at once."

so continues david goines: "The most important poster event of the ‘60s, was a 1965 show of Jugendstil posters at the University of California Art Museum, organized and curated by Herschel Chipp.

"This exhibition was seen by all of the people in San Francisco who were doing posters for the rock ‘n’ roll events of the time, and the very next posters were all but direct imitations of those of the Jugendstil, particularly reflecting the lettering of Ferdinand Andrei (President of the Vienna Secession 1905), and Leopold Forstner of the Wiener Werkstätte, which you will recall as letters all made to fit into a square, or some other shape, and almost illegible."

every one of the earlier posters shown here (and most of them here) were at that exhibition.

more from david goines: "Some of the poster producers were: Berkeley Buonaparte, The Print Mint, The Family Dog, The Food, and Bill Graham. Important designers of that time were: Stanley Mouse and Kelly, of Mouse Studios, Wes Wilson, Victor Moscoso, David Singer, Rick Griffin and Bob Fried.

"More than anything else, the psychedelic poster era, brief as it was, created an audience for posters that had not existed since the turn of the century. The psychedelic and rock poster was not an art reproduction of a poster about a far away event, as was the then-ubiquitous Spanish bullfight poster. They were real advertisements for real events of immediate interest. The posters had a commemorative value as well as being something neat to put on the wall.

"The general acceptance and enthusiasm that greeted the poster designers of the late 60s and early 70s can be attributed to the Fillmore and Avalon posters that preceded them."

when seen in context with what had been going on around the world, the mucha exhibition in london in 1963 and the beardsley in 1966, the influence became vast and intoxicating.

perhaps direct correspondences are harder to find here than in a previous post, but the worm in the bottle is obvious; with squiggley lines, and blowing hair, and the mad swirls of toorop and the decorative elements, the liberties taken with reality, and the general breaking up of our very air, the artists of the secession were in much the same milieu as the stoners 50 years later.

once vision is al- tered, can it ever return?

reference: jugendstil & expressionism in german posters, 1965, herschel b chipp and brenda richardson; regents of the university of california.

a rebirth timeline

edward c moore became head designer of tiffany's silver department, and began utilizing japan-inspired designs as early as 1871.

to put some of this into a perspective, note the dates when studies, books and exhibitions occurred, according to art nouveau: a research guide for design reform by gabriel weisberg and elizabeth menon (and elsewhere).

1943 henry r hope -- sources of art nouveau -- first phd dissertation on the subject

1950 toulouse-lautrec exhibition -- musée d'albi, france

1951 henry f lenning -- the art nouveau -- first book on the subject for over thirty years

1952 first art nouveau exhibition in nearly forty years -- v&a, london

• thomas howarth -- charles rennie mackintosh; book

1955 jugendstil exhibition -- museum für kunsthandwerk, frankfurt

• louis comfort tiffany exhibition -- morse museum, florida

1956 stephan tschudi madsen -- sources of art nouveau; book

1957 robert koch -- louis comfort tiffany; dissertation

• posters usa exhibition -- zurich

1958 art nouveau exhibition -- haus der kunst, munich

• louis comfort tiffany exhibition -- museum of contemporary crafts, new york

1960 art nouveau exhibition -- museum of modern arts, new york (guimard's widow offered his collection to french museums who were not interest. the moma and the met were.)

1962 robert schmutzler -- art nouveau; book

1963 alfonse mucha exhibition -- victoria & albert museum, london

1966 aubrey beardsley exhibition -- victoria & albert museum, london

• and in 1966 herschel b chipp mounted an exhibition at the university of california art museum at berkeley. it was called jugendstil & expressionism in german posters, and next we'll look again at some of the profound effects it had.

this list isn't as comprehensive as i'd like, but i think it makes the point well; collections lead to exhibitions lead to popularity. what more could you want?