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Konnichiwa!! Japanese Beuties introduces you traditional Japanese life with many range of Japanese cultural tools such as kimono, calligraphy, sake, lanterns. These are so peculiar and different from culture and art in wester world. Hope my blog will help you to have a good understanding of our culture and art! Some of them are still used in our contemporaly culture and still making our life very efficient.
We will talk about Japanese traditional lifestyle Japanese fan (sensu) Japanese kimono Japanese calligraphy (shodo) Japanese umbrella (wagasa) Japanese Lanterns/ lamp shade (chocin) Japanese Hanging scrolls (kakejiku) Japanese armor and helmet (yoroi and kabuto) Other Japanese Antique Japanese trational toy Japanese Origami Japanese chess (shogi) Japanese cards (hanafuda) Japanese Kite (tako) Japanese cup and ball (kendama) Japanese bouncing ball (temari) Japanese Juggling balls (otedama) Japanese kitchen ware Japanese Sake bottles and cups (ochoko and tokkuri) Japanese two-tires lunch box (jubako) Japanese Trays for soba (Zaru) Japanese wodden sake cups (masu) Japanese apron (maekake) please click this if you enjoyed.. Bock to Japanese Beauty in Kimono toppage. |
Fujisaki-gu Autunm Festival in Kumamoto!!
 September is festival (matsuri) seasons in Japan. Normally matsuri is held in September or sometime in Autumn because mainly matruri is to cerebrate our farvest. I saw a lot of Japanese fans, lanterns and umbrellas today!! However, this Fujisaki-gu festival is different. This festival was initially cerebrating our victory in our war against other countries. We used to call this festival "boshita". This word was derived from "horoboshita", which means "destroy". We stopped using this word considering the human right of the people who lost the war at that time!! (How considering we are!!!! Too kind of us) Of course, people never see this festival like that and just enjoy the craziness of the festival, yelling, getting pissed, and leading a drunked horse. Here are some photos for that festival.   This pic might help you to grasp the tension of this festival... As you can see the photo above, so many men are needed to lead one big horse as 200,000 Kumamoto people visit this festival and watch this besides the road.. Apparently, they feed the horses Japanese Sake so that horses get more excited, entertaining watchers!! Participating this festival is great honour in Kumamoto!! If you want to join any group, you need to have valid connection to Kumamoto people.. Mainly, organisations and highschools and communities in kumamoto form the groups to participate in.. I participated in this festival when I was 10 because my mum graduated from one high school in Kumamoto!! It was a lot of fun!!     See kids are also enjoying this festival, looking after the pony very well. Actually people are very caring and look after horses very well. They normally pad them not to scare them.. It was very nice to see many horses too.  little kids can sleep in the middle of this craziness and loudness... look at his mohawk very cute Note that so many traditional Japanese outfits could be found here.      sensu (folding fan), wagasa(paper umbrella) and chochin (paper lanterns). Japanese Fans (sensu) Japanese Umbrellas Japanese Lanterns are available here. sayona-rakkyo  テーマ:Japanese Art and Culture - ジャンル:学問・文化・芸術 |
Do you know Japanese Calligraphy (shodo)?
This is what all Japanese kids learn in elementary schools. They will learn how to sit still and to achieve one thing that seems very easy to achieve (but it is not).  (I practised a lot when I was a kid... It was struggling!)  (It is very hard to be good! Practice makes perfect.. I hope)  (It will take whole life to be a shodo master...) The History of Japanese calligraphy has been heavily influenced by Chinese calligraphy. We already started the history of calligraphy in the 4th century, which is before Hiragana and Katakana were invented in Japan!! In contemporary Japanese culture, Shodo became some kinds of performance art, with music and dancing.  full on!! You need to have many tools for Japanese calligraphy. Probably pens (big and small) and ink (in bottle) and paper (special for shodo) could be enough to start Calligraphy. However, if you want to follow Japanese traditinal rules, you need whole calligraphy set.  1. Suzuri: Ink Container made from black stone: That is heavy the hell!! 2. Bunchin: This is a metal bar to press the paper down so that paper does not move while you are writing. 3. sumi: The hard block of ink (not liquid). we used to mix this with water and disolve it to make liquid ink, taking about 10 minutes. See? Calligraphy set weights a lot!! It was too heavy for elemetary school kids, at least I found it heavy!! Anyway, you need years and years to aquire enough skills of shodo.. I advise you to start as soon as possible if you are interested in.. sayonara-kkyo!! oh, you can find some calligraphy tools on Ebay too. please click this if you enjoyed.. テーマ:Japanese Art and Culture - ジャンル:学問・文化・芸術 |
I love Ebay shopping!!!
Because I have been in Australia for ages, it has been so hard to buy the stuff from Japan for ages.. However, now we can buy reasonable Japanese items from Ebay, as a big range of Japanese stuff is available. Some sellers are located in Japan and they will post their products overseas. So in this category, I will introduce any cultural items that I have bought from Ebay!! Have a look at many pieces of sensu that I have bought!!    My fav is the green one! And some lanterns (chocin) here.     And I have found heaps more attractive items from that shop: All about Japanese art and craft!! Kindly, the shop owner gave us a permission to use the images of his products. Thank you tinmanpsyku. I will see you again for more of Japanese goodies for sure!! sayonara. please click this if you enjoyed..  テーマ:Japanese Art and Culture - ジャンル:学問・文化・芸術 |
Hi there.
It has been very hot days here in Japan. I am visiting my parents' place in Japan and enjoying summertime in Japan!!    A lot of festivals (matsuri) are held here and there, nearly every weekend. You can see a lot of chochin (paper lanterns) at every festival. Also we got religious events called obon, which is anual event for our ansestors. Obon is the time when we pray for people who passed away (including our ansestors) and we believe that they come back to Japan to see the rest of their family and significant persons. Lanterns are serving as a guide for the path connecting between our lives and heaven.  ↑that type of lantern is specifically for obon.. As this is the seasonal stuff, I could not find many lanterns left in any shops in Japan.. a bit sad.. I found some lanterns available on Ebay. Seems like summer will be gone soon.. Hav a good weekend!! please click this if you enjoyed.. テーマ:Japanese Art and Culture - ジャンル:学問・文化・芸術 |
Sensu has been very commonly used in old days because it was handy to carry!!
Sensu could be folded very small because whole part of sensu paper will be folded forward and backward, ending up with a piece of folded paper. See the pictures..    We already have had a unfoldable fan (uchiwa) in the 7th century. However sensu was invented in the 8th century, lot later than when people started using Uchiwa in Japan! please click this if you enjoyed..  テーマ:Japanese Art and Culture - ジャンル:学問・文化・芸術 |
Japanese Folding Fan: Sensu
Folding fans have been used in Japanese culcure since old days, back in 7th century! Sensu has been known as a must item for Geisha in old and nowadays!! This is how people know about Sensu!! Sensu could be more familiar with people outside Japan than other Japanese traditional items as you can see these Sensu in many movies about Japanese culture.. like \"Memoir of Geisha\" and stuff.. In old Japanese days, people have to get through boiling hot Japanese summer days. Especially Kyoto has many mountains around that makes summer in Kyoto even hotter! Japanese sensu is a wisdom of how people survive in bloddy summer in old days where they had no electric devices like nowadays. Anyway, have a look at a variety of sensu.. This is how sensu is holded for carrying.       Find more about Japanese Paper Folding Fan: Sensu Japanese Paper Folding Fan (sensu) is available on Ebay, too. please click this if you enjoyed.. テーマ:Japanese Art and Culture - ジャンル:学問・文化・芸術 |
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