As the rainy season has now begun in Japan, I thought I’d re-share this post from last year. It has plenty of folklore and art to enjoy on rainy days, some yokai to keep an eye out during the rainy season, and a folk tradition used to keep the rain away.
open.substack.com/pub/curiouso...
During Japan’s Edo period, an artist gathered wonder into Strange Birds and Beasts 怪奇鳥獣図巻, a scroll of fantastical creatures, many with roots reaching back to China’s Shanhaijing 山海经.
This mythic geography of mountains, spirits, strange nations, and
#art
While it is unproven, many people believe hydrangeas originated in Japan.
The Japanese name 'ajisai' (紫陽花), meaning 'gathering of blue' (aji/atsu 集まる = gathering/ai 藍 = indigo), suggests the flowers were originally mostly blue in colour.
#hydrangea #あじさい #紫陽花 #Japan
Originally a Chinese term, the name 'Plum Rain' applied to the 4th and 5th lunar months, and the belief that the rainy conditions were created by the plum trees south of the Yangtze.
When the plums turned yellow and dropped, it is thought the moisture created turned to rain.
UNVEILING NEW ACCOUNT If you were following my Coffin Boffin account on Twitter @drsamgeorge1 please follow this bsky account. I can't make the transition easily as I have 35K followers on there and only 700+ on here. I am posting on the same themes of Gothic Enchantment and Dark Folklore!!
In different types of soil hydrangea petals differ in colour, giving rise to the nickname 'shichihenge' (七変化 '7 transformations').
Throughout history the warrior class shunned the flowers, considering hydrangea to symbolise fickleness and a change of heart or loyalties.
#Kyoto #hydrangeas
XingWu🐉ChineseFolklore
Camellia Tea Ceremony
Camellia Tea Ceremony
Camellia Tea Ceremony
Coffin Boffin
'Playing with a Kitten' - Takeuchi Keishu, 1912. Frontispiece for a novel 'Sabishiki Yube' on Bungei Kurabu magazine, Vol. 18, No. 12.
#Caturday #JapaneseArt
'Courtesan Seated with a Pipe' from the series 'History of the Three Kingdoms, Courtesans in Peach Banquet' - Totoya Hokkei, with poems by Fukurokutei and Fukkosha Nakayoshi, late Edo period. From the Harvard Art Museum collection.
#JapaneseArt #ukiyoe
curious ordinary
curious ordinary
This elegant Satsuma vase was made in Kyoto during the late 19th century.
Take a moment to enjoy the serene decoration - delicate mandarin ducks enjoying the water under cherry blossom.
🦆 Kyo-Satsuma vase in double-gourd form with mandarin ducks under cherry blossom, late 19th century. EA1956.698
The King of Oni had to be destroyed, but all who stood against him fell. Minamoto no Raikō determined how to do it: he wore two sets of armor and killed Shutendōji, and when the decapitated demon head leaped up to devour him, it ate his armor instead. #MythologyMonday
