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.

new etegami goals

This year has gone by soooo fast. Does it seem that way to you? One of my goals for 2010 was to do an etegami series of Japanese Proverbs, and thanks partly to my mid-year decision to combine that series with the Sketchbook Project, I managed to wrap up both goals in a way that I am satisfied with.

As I cast about for a new etegami focus for 2011, I came to realize that, somewhere deep inside, the decision had been made the moment I discovered the They Draw and Cook website. Thanks to TDAC lighting a match to this particular fire, I am now having the time of my life combining two of my passions: Etegami and Creative Cookery. I will try to complete a minimum of 50 illustrated recipes during the coming year, many of them recipes I've devised myself and were inspired by Japanese food culture.

In addition to this, and for a limited time only, I'll be accepting custom orders from people who want to preserve and display a recipe that means something special to them. The details are here on my Etsy shop.