Recreational research into Feudal Japan
Kihō
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Posts by Kihō
On Netsuke
October 17, 2010 - 2:01 pm
Tags: Edo period, netsuke, obi
Posted in Crafts | No comments
One area of Japanese art popular with collectors are netsuke. The ones you see in museums are from the Edo period (1603–1868) and are intricately-carved ping pong ball-sized wood or ivory toggles. These would have a cord attached and be used to hang a pouch or a small often-decorated box called an inrō from one’s [...]
Mon of the Week: Perching Hawk
Last week we looked at feathers, and today we look at the bird they come from. While animals are relatively rare in mon relative to Western heraldry, they are not unknown, and various birds are the most common. This is a hawk from the same collection of provincial samurai mon. As mentioned last week, falconry [...]
Element of the Week: Feathers
September 27, 2010 - 1:13 am
Tags: falconry, feathers, hawks, Heian period, Muromachi period, provincial, samurai
Posted in Mon | No comments
Today we look at a straightforward motif in mon: feathers. Generally described as hawk’s feathers (or, depending on translation, falcon’s feathers), they are graphically simple and have flexibility in number and arrangement. They have a military connotation, both from hawks being hunting birds and from the tradition of fletching arrows with feathers from birds of [...]
Mon of the Week: Pine-bark Gourds
September 6, 2010 - 4:28 pm
Tags: diamond, gourd, pine, provincial, samurai
Posted in Mon | No comments
Here we have another mon incorporating the chestnut/diamond motif discussed earlier, this one from the 15th century colection of provincial samurai mon.(KJ:7) This mon uses a variation of the three chestnut design with the bottom diamond small to match the top one. This variant is called the “pine-bark diamonds” (松皮菱/matsukawa hishi),(IEJFC:352.2) for reasons that are [...]
Mon of the Week: Three Bamboo Poles
September 6, 2010 - 1:55 am
Tags: bamboo, provincial, samurai
Posted in Mon | No comments
Bamboo groves are commonplace in Japan, and bamboo has long been used as a construction material and for uses such as piping (due to its hollowness) and can easily be sharpened into a spear. Here we have a different take on bamboo found in the collection of provincial mon.(KJ:7) Unlike the more popular depiction of [...]
Mon of the Week: Bell
August 24, 2010 - 2:11 am
Tags: bell, Edo period, longevity, Ōsaka, provincial
Posted in Mon | No comments
Today we look at another mon from the same collection of provincial samurai mon from the 15th century.(KJ:7) Today’s mon uses an enclosure that didn’t become a common element in Japanese mon despite its simplicity and elegance. The enclosing shape appears to be a bell. Bells were associated with Buddhist temples, which used large bells [...]
On Making Kimono
One of the classes I enjoyed this week at Pennsic University was Lady Roxanne’s Guide to Sewing Kosode and “Kimono” (handout soon to be available online at Yama Kaminari). I learned how to make kimono many years ago from my friend Chisato, and have made some modifications along the way, so I thought I’d post [...]
Auspicious Days, a dissenting view
August 4, 2010 - 11:08 pm
Tags: Asakura Toshikage, daimyō, rokuyō, SCA, Sengoku period
Posted in Beliefs | No comments
A while back I talked about auspicious days and directions. I recently came upon a counterpoint reflecting the practical aspects of military thought. This is one of the seventeen testaments of Asakura Toshikage, one of the first Sengoku daimyō, the great lords of the Warring States period.(SoJT:429) It is extremely regrettable if a commander, when [...]
