jacki long: Japan

Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts

Friday, July 9, 2021

Day 3244: Pillow Fight?

"Geisha 18": old print, junk mail collage.

Want music?

Click here Japanese hip-hop.

then click back on this blog tab or here to listen as you browse, or not?

2GN2S

Posters - Japan’s National Pillow Fight Contest

Maybe you haven’t had a good pillow fight in a long time but these posters, created as key visuals for Japan’s National Pillow Fight Contest, are making me want to invite some friends over for a sleepover and start swinging.

They feature Olympic gymnast Airi Hatakeyama in a series of poses the represent the pillars of pillow fighting: throw, dodge and defend.

Japanese pillow fighting differs from that of the west in that pillows are thrown, instead of swung. In fact, the Japanese word for pillow fight is makuranage, which literally means pillow throwing. And historically they’ve been fought during overnight school field trips, which is why the standard uniforms are yukata robes that are worn at ryokan.

The fonts used in each of the kanji are also quite beautiful in that they communicate movement and action by emphasizing the stroke order.

You can get a sense for how the battle plays out in the video below, which was produced in tandem with the posters in 2019.

• A fun 1-1/2 minute video, "pillow-fight", here.

Just because ...

yellow-breasted Greenfinch

Smiles for Friday ...

Thanks for coming by today.

Friday, October 2, 2020

Day 2989: Constant Turmoil.

"Turmoil": acrylic painting and digital.

Want music?

Click here for Aretha Franklin, Until You Come Back to Me.

then click back on this blog tab or here to listen as you browse, or not?

Grandhunk #1 and I went for lunch Thursday at ...

A Japanese restaurant in Tustin. We were able to eat inside after using hand sanitizer and having our temperature taken. Again, I didn't do a good job taking photos of the food, but I will show what I did get.

I had the Tonkatsu Bento lunch box. We split orders of gyoza.

The best gyoza, ever. Charred on a sizzling iron plate.

GH#1 had two orders of sashimi, and said they were good.

Last week, Jordan was with me as I finished up Pandemic Postcards.

He picked his favorite, and I mailed it to him. It arrived today, and

he took this picture for me. Our whole family is nuts?

Grandhunk#1

2GN2S

Tsukimi (月見) or Otsukimi (お月見), literally meaning, "moon-viewing", also known as Jugoya (十五夜), are Japanese festivals honoring the autumn moon, a variant of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The celebration of the full moon typically takes place on the 15th day of the eighth month of the traditional Japanese calendar; the waxing moon is celebrated on the 13th day of the ninth month. These days normally fall in September and October of the modern solar calendar. The tradition dates to the Heian era, and is now so popular in Japan that some people repeat the activities for several evenings following the appearance of the full moon during the eighth lunisolar month.

Tsukimi traditions include displaying decorations made from Japanese pampas grass (susuki) and eating rice dumplings called Tsukimi dango in order to celebrate the beauty of the moon.[1] Seasonal produce are also displayed as offerings to the moon. Sweet potatoes are offered to the full moon, while beans or chestnuts are offered to the waxing moon the following month. The alternate names of the celebrations, Imomeigetsu　(literally "potato harvest moon") and Mamemeigetsu ("bean harvest moon") or Kurimeigetsu ("chestnut harvest moon")

are derived from these offerings.