#Karakusa

[tanuki-kimono]

Phantasmagoric scenery for this beautiful blue kimono, with a cloudy arabesques background over a serene landscape on skirt hem

[panchoandleftyshop]

Larry Smith Antique Red Glass Bead Necklace / Karakusa Rose Pendant #panchoandlefty #larrysmith #larrysmithtokyo #beadnecklace #karakusa #kapital https://www.instagram.com/p/Co_o2DtoQ2R/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[purplealmonds]

Asset turnarounds based on the 3D models for my latest Mononoke illustration!

(Let me know if you want turnarounds of the tenbin and exorcism sword from Mononoke: Karakusa!)

⚖️Tenbin:

👹Exorcism Sword:

🎒Medicine Box:

[thekimonogallery]

About 1920s or 1930s A plainweave semi-gloss silk kimono featuring stenciled "karakusa" (

[diegogtratty]

https://www.deviantart.com/perky-scribbles/art/Advice-from-Holly-1058366842

https://www.deviantart.com/karakusa-az/art/Adrian-and-Holly-hang-out-1004802546

Recent posts I've been surprised with, for those who may not follow me elsewhere.

[just-sp-in-inginthevoid]

Analyzing volume covers

Number 24, 25 & 26 – Bonten Mikey, Draken (+Emma) and Senju

I’m not going to linger over Wakui saying he got inspired by Napoleon for this, you all get the idea

Zinnias (loyalty. In the western flower language: friendship, daily remembrance, reunion between friends/the wish to reunite with someone)? Maybe ? probably not. Open tulips? Nope, neither.

These are parts of full manjis (harmony, good fortune), and there are Karakusa (vines ; longevity, prosperity)

Honestly, this kinda looks like an halo.

The background is filled with Manjis and Full moon (the card from the Hanafuda game ; Izana’s earrings design ; Bonten tattoo). He is walking down stairs, he is walking down from his position of n°1 (also maybe a nod to the fact he died falling down the stairs in OG timeline)

He has the twin dragons (dragon symbolizing wealth, perseverance, wisdom, power, strength. They’re also protectors) and Kurukasu (leaves/vines spreading everywhere ; means longevity, prosperity). Are those Kasa (umbrellas, a traditional Japanese clothes patterns) or some flower I can’t name ? Those are.. something. I have 5 tabs open on Japanese traditional clothes patterns and I can't find what it could be, sorry. Maybe Wakui was just having fun, who knows

Emma has the same/similar clothes as him. It would’ve been nice if she had two phoenix (or one) to go with Draken’s two dragons (since, at least in China, the emperor was tied to dragons and the empress to phoenixes)

Easy to say her clothes have cherry blossoms (optimist, the fleeting nature of life and is a symbol of death and rebirth) on them, it’s harder to say confidently what the other flowers are. Those are probably plum blossoms (good fortune, herald of spring and ward off evil spirits) but could also be peach blossoms (basically the same as cherry flowers, but peach flowers seem to also be linked to girlhood) or primroses (love, and i’m not sure about the other meaning I stumble upon) and those look like eldeiweiss (courage, bravey, power). But i’m not a specialist so take this with a grain of salt.

She also have traditional mist pattern on her clothes; i didn’t find much about the meaning, unfortunately.

The ferris wheel looks like an halo. And also the dharmachakra; ‘the wheel of law’ ; it represents the Noble Eight-fold Path and the Four Noble Truths in Buddhism. It has a direct link with death, rebirth and nirvana

[daihime-sama]

Live now!

It's the Third Strike Before Christmas! Come play some Street Fighter on Fightcade with Hime-Sama and enjoy some holly jolly karakusas!

Watch here!

-RRA Social Media Team

[asnowperson]

Natsu no Guuwa by Yamagishi Ryouko (1976)

I'll spare you the long and winded road that got me to Yamagishi Ryouko's Tennin Karakusa (天人唐草) one shot collection... I was supposed to find the bunkoban edition of it, but because I did my research half-assedly, I got the scans from the 1980 collection with the same title. I was bummed that I didn't get the one shot I was looking for (which was 狐女 (Kitsunejo-Fox Lady, 1981) btw), and was skimming through the one shots in the 1980 book in mild disappointment. The last page of one of the stories caught my eye, because of the text taking up the bottom of the page and my brain going "Huh? Isn't that Hiroshima Peace Memorial?". When I read the first line of what's written on that page, I almost fell off my chair. I KNEW what it was. It was a poem by the great Turkish poet Nazım Hikmet, Hiroshima Child (Kız Çocuğu, 死んだ女の子, 1956).

Now, I had to read this one shot. Natsu no Guuwa (夏の寓話 - Summer Fable) was first published in the 1976 August issue of Seventeen magazine, and later compiled in a bunch of books I'm too lazy to list here. None of them are available as e-books anyway, so it wouldn't be of much use... I'll revisit the list when I buy one of them, because I know I will buy a copy for myself.

The story takes place in Hiroshima during a hot, hot summer. University student Sumio has to spend his summer home sitting and taking care of fish and birds, and getting bored to death. He comes across a girl in the park who never plays with the other kids and who is always alone. The two get closer, however, the girl is acting strange and can't even remember her own name. Sumio tries to figure out her circumstances, only to find that she is the ghost of a little girl who died during the Hiroshima bombing in 1945.

I couldn't find any background info on this, but I'm almost positive that this is a manga adaptation of Nazım Hikmet's poem, and the poem is not there as a decoration. The imagery used in the poem, the little girl knocking on doors (windows, in this case), her burning and turning into ash, is weaved into the story in a most striking way. It's not telling the real-life story that made Nazım (yes, we call him by his first name) write that poem, but a whole new story based on the poem itself. I LOVED Yamagishi's take on this literary work, and felt elated to see a compatriot in a manga by an artist I respect a lot.

It is also in one tiny panel, but there is a guy criticizing the younger generation for being "apolitical" in this manga (see: しらけ世代), which I found interesting. Is Yamagishi condoning people who belong to that generation? Does she criticize the youth dor being apolitical and not caring about their country? Or is she trying to show that despite appearances, they care in their own way? As I'm not Japanese and I wasn't even alive in 1976, I lack the proper background to make a sound assessment on that. But still, it made me aware such concerns also existed in Japan. Isn't this the beauty of reading older manga? They make you think about stuff you'd normally wouldn't think about with a single bubble.

I canot stress it enough, but seeing what Nazım's poem made Yamagishi feel was a very unexpected yet great experience for me. This one shot will hold a special place in my heart.

[blue-belta]

#11月 の #和菓子 。

2022年、毎月発行しているお便り用に描いたもの。

Photoshopで切り抜いて、コラージュして使うため、レイアウトは考えていませんし、下描きの線もちょっと残っています。

#千歳飴 が横向きなのもそのため。

その他、

#亥の子餅 #吹き寄せ　#もみじ饅頭　

今年もあと2ヶ月。

楽しい日々でありますように。

#art #coloredpencil #karakusa #fabercastell #polychromos #chestnut #色鉛筆 #ファーバーカステル #ポリクロモス #イラストグラム #1日1絵 #今日何描いた #今日何描こう #絵を描く暮らし #beltadesign #ベルタデザイン #文様

[vaultsixtynine]

here are my 2 nart characters (one much sillier than the other on purpose):

yashiro akari - akari was raised to be a shrine maiden and then cross-classed into being a samurai exorcist/monster hunter and her life goal is literally Defend Women. she's very tall and has multiple swords and Looks like she belongs in an anime. she's also very bad with money.

karakusa [redacted] - going by kyo interpersonally or by her worksona (kasasagi aka magpie), kyo's a disowned and very talented thief with no problems ever, why would you think she has problems? she also has a cognitohazard genjutsu/seal on her that causes anyone who knew her before she was approximately 15ish to forget she exists and also bars her from knowing her own given name. which, with 6 living siblings that she cares a great deal about, is going Super well for her.

[tanuki-kimono]

Best wintery patterns for this outfit, pairing a tsubaki (camellia) on hiôgi (cypress fan) obi, with a lovely striped kimono with woven-in karakusa (arabesques)

[unovan-gardener]

Pelipper mail! A package of ten reusable masks: Two cream-coloured with a leaf pattern, two patterned like the night sky, two checkered black and white, two plain sage green, and two karakusa pattern dark green and white.

oh

oh wow!

these are really nice...hey thanks anon :)

[purplealmonds]

I watched the Mononoke Zashikiwarashi stage play!!

I watched the performances on 03/29 and 03/30, and I have so many Thoughts. But I’m on vacation and haven’t the spoons to draft them up coherently until I return home in a few days.

For now, I'll do a photo/art dump of my experience.

I arrived a few hours early to the theater (I had to take the train from Kyoto to Osaka, and built in time for potential navigational incompetence). While I waited for the theater to open up, cracked open my iPad and started painting in Procreate.

This is the exterior of Cool Japan Park Osaka's WW Hall. Shaking off a lot of rust from painting from observation, but I'm happy with how the colors came out.

Photo for reference, though I painted it live. Shadows moved quite a bit while I worked because I am slow.

This is the interior of the theater. I was forbidden from taking photo and video of this space, so I painted it it, albeit messily because of the short time I had before the performance began.

Winding back time a bit, here's the cardboard cutout stand the theater staff set out right before they started admitting people into the lobby:

It was a bit windy that day, so it actually snapped in half mere minutes after its installation lmao. Not pictured is the flustered staff tying Mr. Medicine Seller to the railing with some twine.

Selfie taken after the disaster:

Keeping an eye on Mr. Medicine Seller to ensure he doesn't misbehave agains, prints in hand to be gifted to unsuspecting theater-goers:

When I was seated, some of the giftees stopped by to gift me with an acrylic standee and a cookie! The standee is given exclusively to audience members who preordered their tickets super early, so it's amazing I got my hands on one! After the performance, someone also posted my art on their instagram story! O:

The performance visual, gift shop, and posters were also deployed around this time.

Also was pleasantly surprised to see a huge Mononoke Karakusa poster displayed. Unlike typical movie posters, this one was printed on a rather thick matte rather than thin translucent gloss paper.

And here's the merch and goodies I acquired at the lobby:

I was originally buying just the pamphlet, but as you can see I did a few more impulse purchases! I ended up getting:

���� Zashikiwarashi Pamphlet - Hoping if productions of other episodes are a thing this can become a collection. The Bakeneko pamphlet was also sold here. If there's interest I can do a flip-through video of both the Bakeneko and Zashikiwarashi pamphlets!

🎟️Mononoke Karakasa Bonus Gifts: I thought it was just the clear file and a neat lil trading card but it seems like the trading card is actually a movie ticket??? I’m not gonna be in Japan when the movie comes out though but it’s a nice souvenir nonetheless!

🌇 Mononoke Karakasa flyer - The theatre had massive stacks of them to be taken freely. The first one got a bit wrinkled on my ride back to the hotel, so I grabbed 2 more after watching the 2nd performance!

💿Bakeneko Blu-Ray - This was something I thought I’d never get my hands as a US resident so I was pleasantly surprised they were selling this. Definitely a pretty penny but now I get to watch it at my leisure when I get home! May do a write up about it eventually. The Zashikiwarashi Blu-Ray actually went on sale today, but it only delivers in Japan. Sighhh. I guess I have no choice but to fly back when the Umi Bozu stageplay goes live. Or if it pops up on Mercari some time in August the price gouging hopefully won't be too horrific.

[pix4japan]

Paper Fortune Wrapped on Straw Rope

A popular activity when visiting a shrine or a temple is to pick a random omikuji (御神籤/おみくじ), which is a small paper with a  fortune written on it.

Should you acquire an unlucky fortune, you can either take it home with you and hope for the best while keeping a watchful eye out for whatever misfortune might befall you, or you can take the unlucky omikuji and tie it to a straw rope, metal rack, or the branches of a pine tree on the shrine grounds in hopes that the bad luck will remain with the omikuji and not follow you home.

In this shot, the omikuji likely had a bad fortune, and the bearer would rather leave the fortune behind at the shrine for proper disposal in hopes of minimizing their chances of succumbing to misfortune in their daily life.

If you look closely, you can see a karakusa pattern (唐草模様) on the omikuji. Although this pattern is often associated with burglars in modern Japanese culture, this auspicious pattern is originally based on the stems and leaves of intertwined vines, which represent vitality, prosperity, and longevity.

Fujifilm X100V (23 mm) with 5% diffusion filter ISO 160 for 1/300 sec. at ƒ/2.8 Astia/Soft film simulation

[x-c-e-l]

44. The Flow

XCEL Chapter 44 is now live! Read it here!

Ruri Karakusa thundered over the newly constructed bridge spanning the endless white void. Despite the destructive currents of psychic energy that surged between the fragmented islands, Rinkaku Harigane’s construct held fast. On the island ahead, a boy no older than ten, a victim of this horrific incident, had curled up into a ball on his side, sobbing and shaking. Rin clung to Ruri’s back for…

[just-sp-in-inginthevoid]

Analyzing volume covers

Number 29 & 30 – Sanzu and Shinichiro

I don’t have much to say on Sanzu’s, unfortunately. I can’t figure out anything but the presence of the Karakusa pattern. It was only a decorative pattern (it represents leaves/vines spreading everywhere) at first but now it symbolizes prosperity, longevity, and in my eyes it looks like cogs

His clothes are both black and have ‘holes’ (i have no idea how those things are called) like Emma and Izana, he kinda has the same posture as Mikey on the 24th cover, he has dates/times like Takemichi does on the 21th cover BUT his are backward/mirrored. Like Sanzu, he has a Karakusa pattern (still looking like cogs)

He has a dragon (obviously, it’s Shinichiro after all) ; wealth, perseverance, wisdom, power, strength. Dragons are also tied to body of waters, rain… they are said to be the rulers of water and water wheather phenomenas. The Japanese imperial family is said to have a dragon as their ancestor. They are seen as protectors (against evil spirits notably) – but also a kirin which represents peace, serenity and kindness. They appear before the birth or after the death of a great, benevolent and peaceful leader. They can be seen in time of peace. Kirins don’t harm other living thing (and don’t eat them either) – they even barely walk on grass (but rather on water or clouds). They can punish evildoers/spirits.

His flowers include creeping phlox or perhaps jasmine flowers ? and eldeiweiss (courage, bravery, power) ? I- I don’t know (; like for the kawatas, im not sure if im right about the flowers)