Utagawa Hiroshige – { feuilleton }

Weekend links 777

The Seven Wonders of the World (1886). 1: Lighthouse on the Island of Pharos, Alexandria; 2: Statue of the Olympian Jupiter; 3: The Colossus at Rhodes; 4: The Temple of Diana at Ephesus; 5: The Mausoleum of Artemisia; 6: The Pyramids of Egypt; 7: The Walls and Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

• “The space of possible languages is vast, and full of exotic languages that are much weirder and stranger than any we have yet imagined.” Nikhil Mahant on the many possible forms of alien language.

• Among the new titles at Standard Ebooks, the home of free, high-quality, public-domain texts: Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse (translated by Basil Creighton).

• At Alan Moore World: A new interview with Mr Moore about Long London, magic and the future of humanity.

• New music: The Reverent Sky by Steve Roach; and Contrary Motion by Scanner & Nurse With Wound.

• At Public Domain Review: Tangled Dürer: The Six Knots (ca. before 1521).

• At The Daily Heller: A Typographer’s Mother Goose by Louise Fili.

• At Colossal: Woodblock prints by Utagawa Hiroshige.

• At Dennis Cooper’s: Jud Yalkut’s Day.

• The Strange World of…Steve Aylett.

• Seven And Seven Is (1966) by Love | Seven By Seven (1973) by Hawkwind | Seven, Seven, Seven (1995) by Money Mark

Seventeen views of Edo

View From Massaki of Suijin Shrine, Uchigawa Inlet, and Sekiya.

The views are prints by Utagawa Hiroshige from a series, One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (1856–58), which actually contains 119 different views in all. The ones I’ve chosen stand out for their striking formality, the hints of activities taking place outside the frame of the picture, and the contrast of distant views with extreme close-ups. The series ends on a metaphysical note with foxes gathering at night attended by “kitsunebi” ghost flames.

Hachiman Shrine in Ichigaya.

Yoroi Ferry, Koami-cho.

Mannen Bridge in Fukagawa.

Suido Bridge and the Surugadai Quarter.

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Ten views of the Itsukushima Shrine

Aki Province: Itsukushima, Depiction of a Festival, from the series Famous Places in the Sixty-odd Provinces (1853) by Utagawa Hiroshige.

The most recognizable and celebrated feature of the Itsukushima shrine, is its fifty-foot tall vermilion otorii gate (“great gate”), built of decay-resistant camphor wood. The placement of an additional leg in front of and behind each main pillar identifies the torii as reflecting the style of Ryobu Shinto (dual Shinto), a medieval school of esoteric Japanese Buddhism associated with the Shingon Sect. The torii appears to be floating only at high tide. When the tide is low, it is approachable by foot from the island. Gathering shellfish near the gate is also popular at low tide. At night, powerful lights on the shore illuminate the torii. Although the gate has been in place since 1168, the current gate dates back only to 1875. [more]

Torii at Itsukushima (1896) by Kobayashi Kiyochika.

Deer and Torii (1910) by Shoson Ohara.

Miyajima in Snow (1934) by Tsuchiya Koitsu.

Snowy Miyajima (1936) by Tsuchiya Koitsu.

Continue reading “Ten views of the Itsukushima Shrine”