Sakura Blooms and Other Poetic Things: closeups

Showing posts with label closeups. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

THANK GOD, THEY'RE DONE

...the tests at least. I still have one more paper to finish and a graduation to attend, but that's it.

And I gloried in it after my last test.

First I went and explored a shrine nearby to my house that I've been dying to see, but haven't had the time for.

It was pretty excellent.

I found a path next to it that led to a bunch of local gardens. How nostalgic!

Then I headed home. I took some pictures of flowers on the way there.

Okaasan and Hina were out, but I could hear Hina's voice and followed them over to the nearby park.

I should have done this to begin with, but I was so busy with classes and just tiredness in general, but I introduced myself to the moms and kids at the playground (I was lucky because since I was with Okaasan, I had an in and wasn't being a creepy stranger).

For the kids, it was love at first sight. I was bombarded by practiced English (with pretty good pronunciation as well!) questions and answered all as best I could. Then we took a picture.

After that, we played tag and boy, oh boy, are little kids fast. Man. Whew.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

A Day with the Family

So today, after a brutal website-coding yesterday, I decided to hang out with my family.

There was a treat at lunch today--dessert! It was dango (rice flour dumplings) with sweet adzuki beans and vanilla ice cream.

Mmmmm-mmm!

After lunch, we went to the library, where Hina checked out some books and I woefully stared at picture books I couldn't comprehend. :(

Then we went to visit a grave site and make offerings of chocolate biscuits and flowers. After that, despite the light rain sprinkling down, we took a walk through a park and I got to see plum blossoms!

Plum blossoms are thought by most (and referenced in a whole ton of poems) to be the sign of oncoming spring. Spring here we come! It's also considered one of the prettiest flowers, not counting the sakura (also known as cherry blossoms--they are considered the flower of awesome in Japan).

It was only in Japan that I got to see plum blossoms in the flesh, so to speak, for the first time. However, this is the first time I did a major photoshoot with them. Enjoy!

Hina-chan and I

Look at the various shades!

Then we went to an onsen (outdoor bath). Everyone was complaining about the cold (it was about 50 Fahrenheit and raining), but I thought the temperature was perfect to combine from the bath water and the air.

Refreshed and relaxed, we headed home where Okaasan made this delectable delight:

Doesn't it look good?

IT WAS SO GOOD.

The fish (I believe it was maguro--or fatty tuna) was just barely cooked to give it a little less chew, and I mixed the wasabi with soy sauce to drench the entire this (Otousan showed me how). I was in wasabi heaven.

Oh man, I love my Okaasan's cooking.

And that was my Sunday.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Hinamatsuri

Yesterday was the Hinamatsuri or the Girls' Day Festival. Whatever--I'm not going to focus on the "matsuri" itself--instead I'm going to focus on the iconic images--the dolls.

Chances are, if you think of a Japanese doll, you are actually thinking of the specialized doll for the Hinamatsuri. These dolls show up on everything from Hello Kitty to free crackers given away by coffee shops.

As seen here

I admit to having a soft spot for Hinamatsuri dolls--after all, the first ones I saw belonged to the Wright Museum of Art and eventually ended up with me getting a job offer because my photography was liked!

The Japanese Hinamatsuri hina are often labeled as dolls, but these dolls are for not for playing with! Their delicate features give off an aura of priceless treasure (and they often are, with good sets reaching past five thousand dollars a set), and yet they are crafted for young girls, with grandparents often buying a set for their new granddaughter or passing a set down through the generations.

Dressed in clothing styled from the Heian Period (C.E. 794-1185), these dolls represent good fortune for girls—in fact, the Hinamatsuri set up is representing the marriage of the Lord and the Lady at the very top! The Hinamatsuri is so correlated with the idea of marriage that there is an old saying that if a girl does not take her Hinamatsuri display down on March 3rd, that she will marry late or not at all! Though I believe it's fallen out of fashion in these modern times.

The Hinamatsuri, often translated as “Girls’ Day” or “Doll Festival,” takes place on March 3. In Japan, 3 is considered an auspicious number, and 3/3 even more so.

During this festival, elaborate dolls depicting a wedding scene are placed on an elaborate display consisting of 7 shelves. Girls will often feed their dolls with special sweets and a sweet type of alcohol that they will pour into miniature dishes that the dolls hold.

This festival evolved from the Peach Festival (Monto no Sekku), the peach symbolizing feminine qualities, such as mildness, fertility, and obedience. The use of dolls evolved from protective talismans to more of a celebration display in the Edo Period (C.E. 1615-1868), more specifically in 1627 when the empress decided to start the trend. The court quickly latched on to the idea, and the merchants and peasantry after that. Within a hundred years, over six types of Hinamatsuri dolls boomed into production.

Today, the Hinamatsuri has become widely commercialized. It is celebrated with a basic set of 15 dolls, though some only use the main Lord and Lady, with various household furniture as accessories and a silk screen to place behind the Lord and Lady. A decent set will probably cost over $5,000.

From fertility festival to the elaborate doll festival Japanese girls celebrate today, the Hinamatsuri festival has changed due to commercialism and imperial favor and has created a new art form of dolls.

Well, Hinamatsuri is done and gone, but here are some of the pictures I took of Hina-chan's hina dolls when they were set up in early February.