How do you paint the wind?

This is a scene on the Tokaido Road, where our first book about Seikei, The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn, begins. This is near one of the "stations," or rest stops, on the road. The artist is one of Japan's greatest print-makers: Hiroshige. He published a book of such scenes called Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido Road. Here we don't see the town itself, but a scene outside the road, where a bridge crosses the Mie River. "Painting the wind" may sound impossible, but Hiroshige does it by using the billowing cloak of the man at right, the outstretched branches of the willow tree, and finally the man chasing after his hat. We're showing a close-up up the running man, just because we like it so much.
We're about to go to India for a trip, so we might not be able to post again until January. Enjoy the holidays! Give somebody one of Seikei's books as a present!

The Maid's Ghost

Here is a work by the print-maker Hokusai, one of Japan's greatest artists. It illustrates a folk tale about a servant-girl named Okiku. She had broken one of her master's plates, and when he discovered it, he threw her into a well. According to the legend, people could hear the ghost of Okiku rattle the plates (which you can see in her hair) as she counted them over and over.

Martial Arts Sketches

Thought these were interesting, even though they didn't photograph too well. Tried to adjust the white balance, with no success. They were wood block prints made in 1799 by an artist named Kitao Masayoshi. You could get some ideas from them if you were drawing manga.

The Messenger of Zen

This is an ink portrait of Daruma, also called Bodhidharma, who brought the form to Buddhism known as Ch'an to China in the 5th or 6th centuries. Around 700 years later, Ch'an came to Japan, where it was called Zen. Zen is the best-known form of Buddhism in the United States today. From Zen came Pure Land Buddhism, which plays a role in our latest Samurai Detective book, The Red-Headed Demon.
Daruma himself was a "demon," or foreigner. His origins are obscure, but in China he acquired the nickname "blue-eyed barbarian," and was known for being bad-tempered.
The artist who made this picture was himself a Buddhist monk named Hakuin Ekaku. He lived in the 18th century and claimed that the first time he became enlightened, the goal of Buddhism, he was only 24 years old. He spent his life teaching others the path to enlightenment. You can see that his painting style was typical of the Zen philosophy--with swift strokes made through intuition rather than careful planning.
Hakuin wrote a message on the painting. If we had included it, the picture wouldn't have been as large, so we left it out. Here is one translation of what it says: "Zen points directly to the human heart; see into your nature and become Buddha."

The Original Goro

Those readers who play video games probably remember the character Goro from Mortal Kombat. Here is the original Goro, a character created in a kabuki play around 1700. If you've read the first book in our Samurai Detective series, you know that Seikei had to join a kabuki acting troupe to catch the thief. Kabuki was very popular in Japan, and the actor Ichikawa Danjuro played Goro, who was a man with unlimited physical powers. He actually helped the hero of the play overcome his enemies. This print, by the artist Torii Kiyomasu, was made to sell to fans of Danjuro, who wanted to see him in his Goro role.

A Sea Monster

Here is another print by Kuniyoshi. This one illustrated a story about a sailor, Kawanaya Tokuzo. Tokuzo decided to take his boat out to sea on the last day of the year. Sailors regarded this as an unlucky day and usually stayed in port. (It made the holiday longer as well.) Sure enough, Tokuzo encountered a violent storm, threatening to overturn his boat. Then a sea monster named Umibozu suddenly rose from the waves. He commanded Tokuzo: "Name the most horrible thing you know!" Tokuzo at once replied, "My profession. That's the most horrible thing I know." The monster sank into the sea and the storm blew away.
According to one source, the artist Vincent Van Gogh was so impressed with this print that he had a copy of it pinned to his wall for inspiration.

A Ghost Inspires a Poet

Here is another of Kuniyoshi's prints. This one was used to illustrate a collection of poetry. It shows the poet Dainagon Tsunenobu, who lived about a thousand years ago. He is seen writing his most famous poem, which goes:

When the evening comes
From the rice leaves at my gate
Gentle knocks are heard;
And, into my round rush-hut,
Autumn's roaming breeze makes way.

Just as Tsunenobu finished the poem, a ghost appeared outside his window and recited another poem. This one was written by a Chinese poet known in Japanese as Hakuraten. If only writing stories and poems were as easy as waiting for a ghost to recite one to you!

Who We Are and What This Blog is For

We're Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler, and if you got this far, you probably know we have written seven novels about Seikei, a boy in 18th-century Japan--the age of the samurai. You can find a list of our books elsewhere on this blog. Some of our readers are interested enough in Japanese culture that we thought they might want to read more about it. So from time to time, we're going to post more stories and history about Japan. We hope you'll write us at TandDHoob@gmail.com to let us know what you like and don't like. Of course, if you find mistakes, tell us about them too.

The Picture Below

We thought this was a pretty cool pic to start with. You can see it larger on our Facebook page, "The Samurai Detective Series." It came from a print made in the late 1840s by Utagawa Kuniyoshi. It is part of a series illustrating a play about Taira no Masakado, a warrior who lived in the 10th century. He was a ruthless man who killed his own nephew so he could become governor of the nephew's province. That was not enough to satisfy Masakado's ambition. He led a rebellion against the emperor himself, and sought to create his own empire in eastern Japan. The emperor sent an army to try to put down Masakado's rebellion, and he was captured and killed. His head was brought back to Kyoto, the true emperor's capital city, and displayed in the marketplace.

Now the mythical part begins. Masakado's head flew off on its own and landed in Shibasaki, a small fishing village where the city of Tokyo now stands. The head was finally buried and many people, who  resented the government's harsh treatment, made Masakado a hero. People still visit a shrine built in his honor in Tokyo. His daughter, known as Princess Takiyasha, continued to live in her father's palace, and became a sorceress. When the emperor sent warriors to find her, she summoned up the body of her father in the form of a giant skeleton and he drove them off. This is the scene in the print by Kuniyoshi.

The original print of this picture has three parts. Only two of them are shown here. The third shows the sorceress Takiyasha casting her spell. We'll try to post that too when we get a chance.