Japanese woodblock prints combine tourism with imagination. Woodblock prints ( called that from the use of carved wooden blocks used to press ink into paper) showed tourist spots popular in nineteenth century Japan and landscapes imagined by the artist. Andreas Marks’ book, Japan Journeys, takes you to various locales from this time period. Woodblock prints,…
Author: Chris Kincaid
The Old Man Who Made Withered Trees Blossom
In the old, old days, there lived an honest man with his wife, who had a favourite dog, which they used to feed with fish and titbits from their own kitchen. One day, as the old folks went out to work in their garden, the dog went with them, and began playing about. All of…
Japanese Kanji Made Easy
I am terrible at rote memorization. In other Japanese language books (and when I took Spanish classes for that matter), rote memorization was the key to learning. I don’t know how many times I had to copy Spanish conjugate verb charts to remember even just a few of them. My memory is good, but not…
Maoyu
Maoyu Mao Yusha (Demon King and Hero) can be described in a word: rushed. Enter Hero (yeah that is his name). Hero is humanity’s greatest warrior, akin to something you would find in Final Fantasy game. He is able to demolish entire cities and armies with his magic abilities. He was sent to vanquish the…
Life Lessons from the Captain: White Day
White Day, or Opposite Day, is a holiday started by bakeries in Japan to stimulate business. It is held on March 14th. Where the ladies give giri (polite, obligation) and honmei (what we would consider true valentines) chocolates on Valentine’s Day, White Day sees the guys return the gesture. Guys are expected to give gifts…
Shigeru Miyamoto: A Sketch
Most Americans don’t consider Mario to be Japanese. His plumber’s (construction worker) overalls look all American. Yet, behind the famous mustache is a Japanese man. Shigeru Miyamoto created three of the most well known video game franchises: Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid. You’d think he would be a video game player,…