Barcelona Japonisme

I've cribbed the title of this post from one of my favorite art blogs - Japonisme. Lotus Green fills her posts with a mix of the visual, the written word and on occasion the aural - all with connections to the influence of Japan on the artistic world.

Architecturally Barcelona is one of the great cities of the world. Certainly in the historic centre you can't walk a block without being struck by the beautiful, the exotic or the just downright unusual. A stroll down the Rambla - note to self, next trip to Barcelona is weekdays only - reveals the beauties of building after building. Saturday morning - before the crowds became to numerous - revealed this rather fanciful take on things Nipponese.
Though it is now a banking outlet our guess is that at one point this was the home of an umbrella maker. Whoever the architect may have been there's a slight chance he may have confused Japanese and Chinese in the odd detail.The facade is a strange mixture of wooden umbrellas, painted panels of stylized Japanese figures, scraffiti cranes and stained glass. And a combination of floodlights and back lighting makes sure that the building does not go unnoticed at night.

27 marzo - San Ruperto

Things Japanese - A Calender

Laurent brought back this desk calender from Japan. Its the work of YABUUCHI Satoshi, who uses traditional techniques to create his wood sculptures. They reflect many of the values and traditions that Japan has forgotten in an attempt to be more Western.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

A visit to his website reveals some really lovely carvings as well as some major bronze works he's done for public display. Apparently the little boy with the antlers has something to do with the sacred deer that roam through the streets and parks of Nara.

11 gennaio - San Igino Papa

Things Japanese

In November Laurent spent a few weeks on vacation in Japan - yes we do occasionally take separate vacations. He had been there about three years ago to visit our friend Colette but had restricted his activities to Tokyo. This time he did some serious touring around on their great train system - Kyoto,Nara,Osaka and Himeji. He can't stop talking about how efficient and user-friendly their service was, but keep in mind most of his recent experiences has been on TrenItalia.

One of our guests on Christmas Day was another Colette, a friend from Canada who teaches English in Japan. As well as some gelatin sweets adorned with good luck symbols she presented us with a length of obi silk. Well over 14 feet long, its lacquered silk which gives the pattern extra depth and makes it easier to tie the obi. The band of solid orange silk towards one end would be the part of the obi closest the body. It doesn't show and given the cost of patterned silk it is more economical to use the plain silk.

It is a lovely piece of material and Colette suggested cutting it up to make place mats, though I think I would find it difficult to cut into such a beautiful piece of material. We'll have to think of some way to use it.

And a click on the Chrysanthemum will lead you to the first of Laurent's Flickr photo sets of his trip. "Nara is a small town a former Capital of Japan prior to Kyoto. Lovely temples and sacred deers roaming around the parks of the city."

09 gennaio - San Marcellino