In the Quiet Night
So bright a gleam on the foot of my bed -
Could there have been a frost already?
Lifting myself to look, I found that it was moonlight.
Sinking back again, I thought suddenly of home.
- Li Bai (Tang poetry, # 233)
Today I went to Kyoto just because I could. There was a small art exhibit for a traditional Japanese artist,
Kaburaki Kiyokata (31 August 1878 - 2 March 1972) initially illustrated novels doing kuchi-e art covers but later picked up painting and won acclaim through that.
Kaburaki helped found Ugokai, a group trying to revive bijin-ga (beautiful women) art genre.
He also pushed the shin hanga ("new prints") art movement and helped revitalize ukiyo-e prints in the twentieth century.
Another group he helped form, Kinreisha, was an association that trained promising young artists.
Later on in 1944 he became the official court painter! What an honor!! ^^
Clearly this guy had his hand in quite a few endeavors!!
It looked interesting so off I went with another teacher that I met at one of the schools earlier this week.
Afterwards, some coffee and hang out time to follow and my day was just about done. Haha. (I woke up rather late due to a late night bar hopping excursion that lasted until around 3-4am - and I left early! I only hit up two bars but my friends were going to hit up a third when I decided to leave....)
And tomorrow is a holiday for us teachers - wheee! - due to Coming of Age day, which celebrates those that are turning twenty (hatachi) this year meaning they're now "adults". I'm debating on heading back to Kyoto with a camera to check out the amazing (and amazingly expensive!) kimonos that the girls are going to wear. We'll see if I get off my lazy ass to do it. ^^;
Could there have been a frost already?
Lifting myself to look, I found that it was moonlight.
Sinking back again, I thought suddenly of home.
- Li Bai (Tang poetry, # 233)
Today I went to Kyoto just because I could. There was a small art exhibit for a traditional Japanese artist,
Kaburaki Kiyokata (31 August 1878 - 2 March 1972) initially illustrated novels doing kuchi-e art covers but later picked up painting and won acclaim through that.
Kaburaki helped found Ugokai, a group trying to revive bijin-ga (beautiful women) art genre.
He also pushed the shin hanga ("new prints") art movement and helped revitalize ukiyo-e prints in the twentieth century.
Another group he helped form, Kinreisha, was an association that trained promising young artists.
Later on in 1944 he became the official court painter! What an honor!! ^^
Clearly this guy had his hand in quite a few endeavors!!
It looked interesting so off I went with another teacher that I met at one of the schools earlier this week.
Afterwards, some coffee and hang out time to follow and my day was just about done. Haha. (I woke up rather late due to a late night bar hopping excursion that lasted until around 3-4am - and I left early! I only hit up two bars but my friends were going to hit up a third when I decided to leave....)
And tomorrow is a holiday for us teachers - wheee! - due to Coming of Age day, which celebrates those that are turning twenty (hatachi) this year meaning they're now "adults". I'm debating on heading back to Kyoto with a camera to check out the amazing (and amazingly expensive!) kimonos that the girls are going to wear. We'll see if I get off my lazy ass to do it. ^^;