illustration friday (silent)

I'm working on a new etegami for this week's IF prompt, but meanwhile, remember this etegami that I made for 2011 The Year of the Rabbit? Did 2011 pass as quickly for you as it did for me? Was it as tumultuous for those of you outside Japan as it was those of us in Japan? Whew! What a year.

humanizing the quake (tochigi)

Dorei (clay bells) have a long tradition in Japanese folk art. One usually sees them in the shapes of the animals in the oriental zodiac, though they are made in other shapes as well. The zodiac dorei are often sold at temples and shrines as good luck charms, especially during the New Year season. Inside the hollow animal shape is a round ball of clay that makes a sort of clanking sound when the bell is shaken.

The etegami posted here is a sample of a rabbit dorei made in Tochigi prefecture. Tochigi is home to the famous Nikkō National Park, which was registered as the 10th UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.

The writing that accompanies the image translates roughly to: The hill where I once chased rabbits. It is the first line of a song called Furusato (home land), which most Japanese people know by heart. It expresses a deep fondness for, and longing to return to, the place where one has grown up. It is often sung at graduation ceremonies, was featured at the closing ceremony of the Nagano Olympics in 1998, and has actually been suggested as an alternative national anthem.

rabbits galore

This is one of the many etegami I painted as a New Year's card for 2011 Year of the Rabbit. The words accompanying this solemn-faced rabbit are a Hausa proverb.

Here's one for people who prefer cute bunnies.

The inspiration for these simple bunnies comes from the bunny-shaped confections that become popular in Japan during rabbit years. I'm planning to post a recipe for these usagi manju later this month on my Wagashi blog.

I also did a bunch of etegami collages. This one was inspired by the lunar eclipse. Whereas Americans refer to "the man in the moon," in Japan, we see a rabbit pounding sticky rice with a mallet. I imagined the over-worked rabbit taking the eclipse as an opportunity to take a brief break. I thought of hanging a sign on the darkened moon with the words "gone fishing," or "out to lunch," but in the end I just labeled it "lunar eclipse" to limit clutter.

Here are some of the other collages I made by gluing etegami rabbits to backgrounds of colored washi, a page from an antique book of singing poems, or pieces torn from an old Japanese-English dictionary. Due to the rabbit-in-the-moon tradition, rabbits and the moon make a natural combination in Japanese art.