🌕BATS FOR BATS🦇
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@camelliakyoto I love bats and appreciate that unlike in so much of the West, Japan is among the places and cultures that have sufficiently positive regard for bats to feature them on decorative arts regularly
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BATS FOR BATS
Unlike many countries, in Japan bats have long been considered auspicious symbols...their images used on everything from sword sheaths to kimono.
In China the word for bat (fù 蝠) was a homonym for 'wealth' or 'fortune' (fù 富), and over time the bat became connected to good luck.
@camelliakyoto That's interesting.
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The most common type of higashi use wooden molds called 'kigata' (木型) to create intricate designs in sugar.
Some of the most remarkable kigata use bats as inspiration...one artist even borrowing the face of a cat to create a strange hybrid.
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The most common type of higashi use wooden molds called 'kigata' (木型) to create intricate designs in sugar.
Some of the most remarkable kigata use bats as inspiration...one artist even borrowing the face of a cat to create a strange hybrid.
In China the god of happiness, 'Fuxing' (福星), was often depicted as a bat, or garbed in robes embroidered with bats.
Two bats came to symbolize true happiness, and five bats the 'five blessings' of longevity, wealth, virtuousness, tranquility and an honored (natural) death.
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In China the god of happiness, 'Fuxing' (福星), was often depicted as a bat, or garbed in robes embroidered with bats.
Two bats came to symbolize true happiness, and five bats the 'five blessings' of longevity, wealth, virtuousness, tranquility and an honored (natural) death.
@camelliakyoto "In China the god of happiness, 'Fuxing' (福星), was often depicted as a bat..." Nice! I love that a culture depicts bats in such a positive way!
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In China the god of happiness, 'Fuxing' (福星), was often depicted as a bat, or garbed in robes embroidered with bats.
Two bats came to symbolize true happiness, and five bats the 'five blessings' of longevity, wealth, virtuousness, tranquility and an honored (natural) death.
One of my favourite ukiyoe subjects is the famed swordsman Miyamoto Musashi (宮本武藏 1584-1645) fighting a nobusuma in the mountains of Tanba (丹波国).
A 'nobusuma' (野衾) or 'tobikura' (飛倉) is a bat that transforms into a yōkai with old age. -
BATS FOR BATS
Unlike many countries, in Japan bats have long been considered auspicious symbols...their images used on everything from sword sheaths to kimono.
In China the word for bat (fù 蝠) was a homonym for 'wealth' or 'fortune' (fù 富), and over time the bat became connected to good luck.
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One of my favourite ukiyoe subjects is the famed swordsman Miyamoto Musashi (宮本武藏 1584-1645) fighting a nobusuma in the mountains of Tanba (丹波国).
A 'nobusuma' (野衾) or 'tobikura' (飛倉) is a bat that transforms into a yōkai with old age.The transformation of aging bats does not end with them becoming nobusuma (野衾).
Nobusuma, when old, become 'yamachichi' (山地乳) or 'momonjii' (百々爺 - a violent old man that assaults passersby).
Yamachichi subsist on the breath of sleeping humans (who will die the next day!)
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The transformation of aging bats does not end with them becoming nobusuma (野衾).
Nobusuma, when old, become 'yamachichi' (山地乳) or 'momonjii' (百々爺 - a violent old man that assaults passersby).
Yamachichi subsist on the breath of sleeping humans (who will die the next day!)A character by the name of 'Kōmoriyasu' (蝙蝠安), named after the bat tattoo on his cheek, appears in the famous Kabuki play 'The Affair of Yosaburō & Otomi' (与話情浮名横櫛).
Yosaburō joins with him after being left scarred by the gangster Genzaemon (for his affair with Otomi). -
J jwcph@helvede.net shared this topic
