2/19/2006

Plates

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sara 皿 Plates with Daruma Design

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Imari Plates

An interesting blue and white Imari plate 3 pc set decorated with Daruma , from early 20 century.
The design is very unique. Very fine brushwork on Daruma's expression. Backside has 3 bats design.
Measures 5 inch diameter.
source : www.japanese-closet.com









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Kutani Pottery 九谷焼

Kaburak store, Kanazawa
source : kaburaki.jp/store

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source : www.dodicitile.com


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source : www.chunichi-culture.jp

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CLICK for enlargement !

Daruma plate with Shinto motives !

- source : Jennifer on facebook

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CLICK for more Daruma plates !


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. hachi はち【鉢】 bowls of all kinds .
with hokku by Matsuo Basho

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2/13/2006

Naa-san cat

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Naa-san and Daruma

from Takasaki


© PHOTO : blogs.yahoo.co.jp



A little manga CAT called Naa-san なーさん

CLICK for more NAA-san photos

Kirari's cat.
He is an outstanding cat that can sew, cook, and do other chores. Na-san has received recognition for his intelligence and singing abilities. He even knows how to repair vending machines. As a mascot character to the heroine, he provides a lot of help to Kirari and protects her from danger. At the same time, it is also shown that it is a genius cat which excels in both English and mathematics. His favorite food is taiyaki.
source :  myanimelist.net




Takasaki Town Mascot ... 高崎だるま "たか丸"

Manga Daruma マンガ ダルマ / 漫画だるま Anime Daruma アニメダルマ

Mascott Hot Pepper マクコット


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Please send your contributions to Gabi Greve
Daruma Discussion Forum

Alphabetical Index of the Daruma Museum

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worldkigo

2/10/2006

Apsaras and Dunhuang

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Apsara, Apsaras, Heavenly Maidens
tennnyo 天女, hiten 飛天 flying apsaras, divine nymphs



This is a hand-painted copy from the walls of the Stone Caves at Dunhuang, China.
I bought it more than 15 years ago at the local museum, where these reproductions are sold quite expensively as a contribution to the preservation effort of the caves.

The painters sit in the cold caves for hours and meticulously copy the wall paintings, including the fadings and spots and missing parts. They are young aspiring painters who also make a living out of this work.

For more about Dunhuang read the LINK of Mark Schumacher below.

This page contains many photos, please be patient while they are uploaded.

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The Symbol of Dunhuang, a Heavenly Maiden



敦煌のシンボル : 「反弾き琵琶の天女像」

Look at many more photos from the area (Text in Japanese)
http://www.pluto.dti.ne.jp/~kennyko/SILKROAD/DUNHUANG_D4_4.html

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Some Apsaras, taken from this book:
敦煌石窟, 敦煌文物研究所/平凡社 1982

The photos will give you an impression about the changes of painting style, colors used during the ages and the kind of abstraction used. Some of them look like modern art to me.
One of the major problems of wall painting at these times was to find the appropriate mineral colors that would last for a while.

Northern Liang Dynasty (421 - 534)






Western Wei Dynasty (535 - 556)







Northern Zhou Dynasty (557 - 581)




Sui Dynasty (581 - 618)










Early Tang Dynasty (618 - 712)




Prosperous Tang Period (712 - 781)





........................ Musician Bodhisattvas






Later Tang Dynasty (848 - 907)




Northern Sung (Song) Dynasty (960 - 1036)



Photos taken from the following book:
Tonko Bunbutsu Kenkyujo Hen;
Kanshu Chugoku Sekkutsu Tonko Bakkookutsu Henshu Iinkai.
Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1980-1982
( Chinese Cave Temple Series: The Mogao Caves at Dunhuang)

oo oo oo oo oo

Further reading in the Daruma Library

Apsaras and Musical Instruments, by Chen Lin


DUNHUANG STUDIES - by Prof. Ning Qiang
with more photos

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The musical instruments shown with these apsaras are now revived in China and used in orchestras.
Here is a group with its instruments.
敦煌古楽器アンサンブル Tonko Ko Gakki Ensamble
http://www.chugei.com/tonkou/index.html

More LINKS with photos from the caves

http://www.pluto.dti.ne.jp/~kennyko/SILKROAD/MOGAO_D5_06.html

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Tonko 敦煌 Dunhuang

More photos from my trip to Dunhuang

Photos from my Trip to Seian and the Gobi Desert

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Mystical Bird (Karyōbinga), 葛飾北斎 Katsushika Hokusai



Karyōbinga 迦陵頻伽 (Karyobinga) Skt. = Kalavinka
Celestial beings who play music, dance, and fly through the air. They appear in many forms, often with bird’s body and angelic head, and are sometimes associated with Amida Nyorai. They appear often in Buddhist paintings, ritual robes, murals, and temple decorations.

Celestial Maidens : Look at many more photos and
read Mark Schumacher.

Mark will tell you all the necessary information about this subject.

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I dedicate this page to Prof. Dietrich Seckel
my professor of East-Asian Art at Heidelberg University.
He told us about Dunhuang and the apsaras with so much enthusiasm, that it has since then been my wish to see them for myself.
Professor für Ostasiatische Kunstsgeschichte, Universität Heidelberg

Professor Seckel about the Apsaras

Heilige Gestalten stehen in der buddhistischen Theologie und Kunst selten alleine, vielmehr sind sie mit anderen, die mit ihnen einen gedanklichen und kultischen Zusammenhang haben, zu ikonographisch ziemlich feststehenden Gruppen verbunden.

Zu jedem Buddha gehört ein oder meist zwei Bodhisattvas, in der esoterischen Schule auch ein Vidyaaraaja; ferner gehört zu ihm eine Gruppe beschützender und eine Gruppe anbetender Wesen (anbetende oder Weihgaben darbringende Bodhisattvas (kuyoo bosatsu) ) oder Apsaras, d.h. engelartige Himmelswesen, Adoranten, Jünger.

... aber auch wenn göttliche oder halbgöttliche Wesen im Akt der Verehrung erscheinen, wie vor allem die Apsaras, werden sie in oft lebhafter, anmutig schwebender, fliegender, tänzerischer Bewegung gezeigt; und zwar treten solche Bewegungen geschichtlich sehr früh auf - nämlich schon in der Wei- und Suiko-Zeit.

... engelartige (doch mit den alttestamentlichen oder christlichen Engeln gar nicht vergleichbare) Bodhisattvas, die zur Verehrung (puja, puuja) eines Buddha herbeischweben und ihm Blumen, Weihrauch, Musik und Tanz als Weihgaben darbringen.
Sie und die ihnen ähnlichen Apsaras werden oft recht unpräzise als "fliegende Himmelswesen", "heavenly beings" und dergleichen bezeichnet.

Quoted from
Buddhistische Kunst Ostasiens
Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1957


Buddha Statues, Who is Who, by Gabi Greve
Reviewed by Prof. Seckel


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Hindu Mythology

The Apsaras are female spirits of nature. Thye are usually water nymphs or forest spirits. They are considered very talented artistically, and all of them are described as being very beautiful. Apsaras love to dance and they often performed for gods.
While serving as inspiration for lovers, they were often sent by Ravana to tempt rishis or Brahmans who were retreating into the forest.
http://www.siamese-dream.com/reference/apsaras.html

Read more about Music of India and Haiku


snowflakes -
the heavenly crowds
descending


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A Comment from Chris Cochrane
February 2006

Though the term "apsara" is not used, the heaven-flying maiden is the figure seen in Japanese paintings of the maiden Hagoromo-- (the maiden of the Feather Mantle). She flys over Mt. Fuji dropping feathers; these paintings are displayed at New Year's season.



The story of the bird maiden goes back to an 8th century collection of provincial topographies _Fudoki_ (source: http://www.shermanleeinstitute.org/exhibition-spring05.html). A group of birds changes into maidens to bathe in a lake. A man steals the feather robe (hagoromo) of the youngest, forcing her to marry him. After many years, she retrieves her gown and returns to the skies, leaving her husband and their children behind.

The later noh drama _Hagoromo_ tells of a fisherman who discovers the feather mantle of a heavenly maiden. The maiden asks him to return the garment to her. When he does, she rises into the sky dancing evocatively.

Feathers allude to good fortune (the return of a feathered "bat (homonym for luck)/birdie" in a paddle game) and perhaps to depiction of spirits descending through a natural object object (_yorishiro_ in Shinto belief), not unlike spirits descending to color the leaves from top to bottom in autumn as heaven's spirit descends to the dusty world in the Noh drama _Tatsuta_.



The dance of the maiden of the Feather Mantle is also replicated by the character of the Chinese historical beauty Yang Keui-fei (name changed) in the Noh drama _Yokihi_.

The International Shakuhachi website www.komuso.com/pieces/Hagoromo_no_Kyoku.html references this maiden. It includes the text of a poem set to koto music and notes: "One of the most profound of the kumi-uta that are classified into the deep interior (oku) category of the koto music repertoire (1), this song cycle 'Hagoromo no kyoku' ('Celestial Robes') is played frequently as part of the first musical event of the New Year Hikizome, a traditional ceremony that accompanies the First Reading, the First Writing and other ceremonies that begin the New Year in Japan."

2 photos are © by Chris Cochrane

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source : www.threehares.net/


Mogao caves–
the hare with amber eyes
curls itself a timepiece



Triple hare symbols have been found at the caves.

Alan Summers

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. Kikaku, Takarai Kikaku 宝井其角 Enomoto Kikaku (1661-1707) .

Enoshima Island 榎島

花風や天女負れて歩渡り
hanakaze ya tennyo owarete kachi-watari

blossoms in the wind --
a heavenly woman rides high
across the shallows

Tr. and comment : Chris Drake

Many different characters were used to write Enoshima. I think "heavenly woman" (tennyo) must refer to Benzaiten, an Indian female god associated with Buddhism who governs artistic ability, eloquence, knowledge, water, the ocean, and wealth. There is a famous shrine to her on Enoshima Island, not far from Edo. Benzaiten or, more commonly, Benten was worshiped by many Edo people, who often made pilgrimages to Enoshima Island, especially in spring. One of the two statues of Benten on the island is very famous and shows her playing a lute (biwa) naked. Benten is often referred to as a heavenly woman, and she is also represented by three Shinto gods, all sisters, so there were/are actually four heavenly women on the island -- and no male gods.

The meaning of the hokku is a little difficult, so this is just a first guess. The first line refers to the wind blowing cherry blossoms on the island and onto the sea around it. The last line seems to refer to walking to or from Enoshima Island across a narrow ridge in the shore that at low tide connects the shore with the island but at high tide is covered. The verb kachi-wataru (written both 徒渡る and 歩渡る) means to ford or wade through shallow water up to about two feet high, usually in order to cross a stream or shallow river.

As for the heavenly woman, I wonder if Kikaku isn't using the term metaphorically while at the same time referring to Benten. Perhaps the tide has started to rise, covering the natural walkway between the island and the shore, and one woman pilgrim in beautiful spring robes has hired a porter to carry her back to the mainland through the shallow water now covering the same ridge of sandy land she walked on earlier to get to the island. Or perhaps the women is traveling with a man, and now he carries her on his shoulders across the shallow water between the island and mainland at high tide.

To Kikaku the woman must look very beautiful, since he her calls her a heavenly woman. Or perhaps, a bit like the naked Benten statue, the woman has pulled up her robes so they won't get ruined by the salt water and parts of her thighs are now showing. At the same time, the blossoms scattering in the wind make the woman on the man's shoulders look a bit as if she were flying through the air like a heavenly being. I translate "carried" as "rides high," since I think Kikaku is suggesting a semi-flying image of the semi-heavenly woman. (Or there might be several women being carried/riding across, since number isn't marked here.)

Chris Drake

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source : Hitoshi on facebook

at 高野山 Mount Koya

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2/04/2006

Kites (tako)

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. tako 凧 Kites of Japan - Introduction .
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Kite 凧 tako

wadako 和凧 Japanese Kite

CLICK for more photos

Flying a kite is a popular event during the three days of New Year Holidays. There are also contests of Kite flying in Hamamatsu and other cities. Some kites are so big it takes a whole group of grown up men to hold them. The patterns of Japanese Kites are sometimes very beautiful, heroes of legends and folktales are most spectacular. To find out about them is like an excursion in the stormy field of Japanese Samurai Heroes. But the diligent Daruma san has also won his place in this genre.


. tako 凧 Kites of Japan .
- - - - - tako-e 凧絵 pictures on kites

. Edodako, Edo-dako 江戸凧 Kites of Edo .

. Kanagawa 神奈川 three kites .

. Kyushu 九州 kites from Kyushu .

. toojindako, toojin tako 唐人凧 kite with Chinese face .

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History of Kites in Japan


Kite Museums in Japan - 凧(たこ)博物館


Japan Kite Association "日本凧の会"


Kites with six corners 六角凧 rokkaku tako


Goods with Daruma kite patterns,
like nektie pins and others
http://www.shokoren-toyama.or.jp/~daimon/tokusan/goods.html


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Make a wish with “Kite-Flying”
and fly it high in the sky

January 2015



- source : tadaima Japan

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The Kite Museum in Ikasaki, Shikoku

Kites from Japan and all over the World



凧博物館では、日本各地の凧はもちろん、世界中から収集した凧の展示を中心に、凧に関する幅広い資料の充実を図っています。
伝統ある各地の凧を展示、紹介するとともに、創意工夫をこらした新しい凧も展示して、凧とのふれあいを深めたいと考えています。


五十崎凧資料館
〒795-0301 愛媛県喜多郡内子町五十崎甲1437番地
TEL 0893-44-5200 FAX 0893-44-5202
http://www.shikoku.ne.jp/bigkite/takohaku.html


MAP of the Area

List of Kites from Japan / 日本各地の凧
Click on the buttons to see the various kites.

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Daruma from Hatano - Hadano 秦野だるま


Daruma as protector of the silk cocoons.

だるまは形が繭に似ているところから、養蚕の神とされてきました。
その他にも七転び八起きの商売繁盛、赤い衣は子どもの厄除け、農家にとっては豊年万作の福のなどなど、縁起物として大切にされています。
その昔、武家に子どもが生まれると、出生を祝って角凧をあげていました。
それを遠くで眺めていた農家の子供たちが凧を羨ましがり、せがまれて親が作ったのがだるま凧だったと言われています。目玉や胴の模様に蝋を溶かして筆で塗るとあげたときに逆光になり、その部分がランランと輝いて見えます。


. Kites from Kanagawa 神奈川の凧  .
abudako, abu tako あぶ凧 / 虻凧 kite like a gadfly
semidako, semi tako 蝉凧 cicada kite
shoogidako, shoogi tako 将棋凧 Japanese Shogi chess kite


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Daruma from Etchuu 越中だるま凧



六角凧で有名な三条市の凧にだるまを描いたものです。だるまは力強い筆致で描かれることが多く、この凧も線の太い力強いだるまの絵柄となっています。骨組みも太く、強風用の凧となっています。
A kite with six corners.


. Etchu Daimon Kite Festival 越中大門凧祭り   
with more Daruma kites !


. Folk Toys from Toyama (Etchu) .

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A long single tail is needed to fly this kite.
The birth of this kite is Hatano city, Kanagawa prefecture.
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~ET3M-TKKW/daruma.html

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Big Kite from Tsugaru 津軽大凧
About 115 cm long and 90 cm wide.




Photos from Ishino san.

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Sakurai no tako 桜井の凧 kites from Sakurai
common forms are fukusuke, horsefly, bee, butterfly and Tenjin sama.
They are known for their bright colors. They are "sodedako" 袖凧 kites with sleeves.



. Aichi Folk Art - 愛知県  .

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Kurayoshi no Ika 倉吉いか
In the town of Kurayoshi, Tottori, the kites are not called TAKO (Octopus), but IKA (Squid).
. . . CLICK here for Photos !

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. ikanobori いかのぼり - 凧 -紙鳶 kite like a squid .
speciality of Hakodate, Hokkaido


凧巾きのふの空のありどころ
几巾(いかのぼり)きのふの空のありどころ
ikanobori kinoo no sora no aridokoro

this "squid" kite
in the same place
as in yesterday's sky

Tr. Gabi Greve


a kite flying
in the same place
as in yesterday's sky

Tr. and following comment : Chris Drake

A child or child with parent is out flying a large kite in the spring wind. As Buson or his persona watches from a place that has clear landmarks around it, he experiences an uncanny feeling when he realizes the kite is flying in the same part of the sky where he saw another kite flying yesterday. The open expanse of the sky seems to lead his consciousness to expand and oscillate back and forth between the present and the day before until linear time begins to recede and time becomes spatialized -- as open and borderless as the sky. This seems to be a kind of eternal moment in which he sees yesterday's and today's skies together as non-dual.
In Japanese, kinō, "yesterday," sometimes has the same open-ended meaning of "in the past" that the English word has, and many Japanese readers feel Buson in this moment of time out of time concretely feels or oscillates between the present and the remembered time of his childhood, when as a boy he watched a high-flying kite in the very same part of the "same" sky. The barely visible cord or string of the kite thus suggests the thread of memory that allows humans to feel they have a continuous identity and a linear life constructed of days and months and years, and it this cord seems to imply that humans can sometimes travel forward and backward in life narratives that are circular, like the sky.
Buson compared haikai history to a great circle in the preface to one of his renku collections, and he was surely familiar with the various circles drawn by zen calligraphers and painters, so I think this hokku is also setting up an oscillation between linear and circular or spherical time in general, as if we could have memories of the future. For example, perhaps Buson feels at this moment that he could already partially glimpse himself as he is now when he was a boy looking up at a kite. Since hokku (and painting) seem to give Buson access to spherical time, perhaps the kite in this hokku also suggests a hokku tethered to grammar and ordinary reference but flying beyond them and suggesting things in timeless time.
Perhaps this is why Japanese critics often refer to this hokku as evoking an experience of eternity.

Due to the ambiguity of the possessive or genitive particle no in sora no in the second line, it is also possible to translate the hokku without "as" at the beginning of the third line:

a kite flying
in the same place
in yesterday's sky


In this translation yesterday's sky becomes today's sky as well. Because of the grammatical vagueness, both readings sound natural in Japanese, but in English this second translation might strike some readers as forced or as a mistake. In some ways I like the second translation better, since it has a physical impact suggesting two simultaneous times. A less "contradictory" version of the second translation would go:

a kite now flies
in the same place
in yesterday's sky


- - - - - Chris Drake


. Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村 in Edo .

ikanobori 几巾 is a kigo for the New Year.


quote
Ikanobori 紙鳶. This means "kite", and don't let the straight-from-Chinese kanji spelling ("paper hawk") fool you: the etymology is "squid streamer."

But wait — Wasn't the Japanese word for "kite" actually tako, homophonous with and probably deriving from the word for "octopus"? Turns out that tako is the Edo word for "kite", and up until the great linguistic levelling of the Meiji period the Kansai area used ika[nobori]. The Nihon kokugo daijiten points out that in the deep north and far west, there's still another family of words in use, based on the root hata (perhaps related to hata meaning "loom"?).

So the "center and periphery" model of language change would suggest that hata was the original word, later supplanted by tako, itself later replaced by ika (at least in the Kansai region — presumably the center shifted to Edo before the word was able to fully propagate, Maeda Isamu 前田勇's Edo-go no jiten (江戸語の辞典, "Dictionary of Edoese") has an entry for ikanobori, but calls it a loan (着用語) from the Kansai area (上方). Of course, the real story is probably more complicated than a simple wave-based model, but it seems that kites simply weren't mentioned in much writing between the Heian and Edo periods, and evidence is scarce.
Makimura Shiyō 牧村史陽's Ōsaka kotoba jiten (大阪ことば事典, "Encyclopedia of Osakan dialect/words") has what looks like a pretty thorough if (understandably) Ōsaka-centric review of what historical evidence exists in its ikanobori entry.
source : no-sword.jp/blog


- quote -
A Famous Buson Haiku: Is It ‘Kite’ or ‘Kites’?
One of the peculiarities of the Japanese language is that while it’s does have a plural form for nouns it almost never gets used, mainly because the context that speaker is in dictates if they mean more than one of something. This gets a little tricky when it comes to reading haiku because the reader isn’t in the same physically present context as the speaker. . . . . .
- source : James Karkoski -


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凧っ平 浅見 英男(あさみ ひでお)


for the year of the snake

Finally I want to introduce the kites of Mr. Hideo Asami. I met him at an exhibition in a store in Okayama City in 2001 and bought three kites all at once. Mr. Asami is very good with the brush, as you can see from the circle below the BIG Daruma kite. But what impressed me most was the writing of a special kite for my husband, rendering his name Bernard into "Beru (a bell) Naru (ringing) Doo (way)" , which he choose to write in chinese characters, making up a special version of the BELL part with a little bell instead of the strokes that belong here!




ベル鳴る道 beru naru do

浅見英男 Asami Hideo
http://www.mmjp.or.jp/tako/





My next best favourite is the BIG White, as I call him. He hangs in our Daruma Hall as if he was ment to be there. He is full of symbols of good luck: This very special kite has the most lucky charms on one figure (fuku o maneku Daruma Tako 招幸の達磨凧): The headband is in form of a pair of crossed herons, symbol for good marriage. The eyes in form of plover birds (chidori 千鳥), put on with wax to be shining. The chidori-form means your wish will be granted. The nose in form of the chinese character "To be happy" (yorokobu 喜). The ears in form of a gourd, with the Sanskrit characters for "A" and "Om", Beginning and End of all Things, on each. Symbol for a student who is studying all his life.
The beard painted strongly, symbol of good health.

The belly in form of mountains with the size of 7 5 3 (shichi go san 七五三), a lucky number for healthy children. General form of a rounded egg, since old times a symbol for good luck. Red color wards away bad luck, yellow brings money, purple expresses dignigty and the slightly pink face shows strong will.
The bow for the kite makes a sound when stretched to ward off evil spirits. If this much of lucky items does not help, who will? And the bells in the ear to wake you up from your dream about reality, the circle for the infinite truth...





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from Kagawa 香川県

kite in the typical Daruma from だるまの形の凧
painted with
. Kato Kiyomasa 加藤清正 .


. my PHOTO ALBUM : Kite (tako)

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- Legends about Kites - 凧伝説

Ehime
In the village 久万高原町 Kumakogen
There is a 凧屋の八兵衛 Kite Shop run by Hachibei. When he went to get a bride, he came to a ghost house. At night he saw a light in the garden and wanted to flee, but his new bride told him that this was the hiding place of a golden stone (kin no ishi 金の石). Next morning he dug in the garden and found a golden cup under the stone. Soon he was the richest man in the village.


Osaka
When children want to fly a kite (called 凧(いか) IKA in Osaka) and there is no wind, they call for a Tengu to help.
「天狗さん、風を下さい。余ったら返します。」
Tengu san, please send us wind. If it is too much, we send it back.
「天狗さん、もっと風おくれんか。余ったら返す」
Tengu san, please send us much more wind. If it is too much, we send it back.


. Tengu 天狗と伝説 Tengu legends "Long-nosed Goblin" .


In Yamagata 山形県
there is a takokai 凧怪 "kite monster".
It comes out during daytime, looking like a normal kite, but then comes closer and bites people. It has a face painted on it, but in fact, it is a Yokai monster.

There is also a Yokai called
toppuutako 突風凧 "strong wind kite".
It comes out during a typhoon and blows around like a whirlwind and causes much damage.

- source : nichibun yokai database -


. Legends and Tales from Japan 伝説 - Introduction .

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Bintulu International Kite Festival
Borneo International Kite Festival

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September 30 till October 3, 2010

. Reference .


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. waraji tako わらじ凧
kite in the form of a straw sandal


This kite is made in memory of the great straw sandal from Mount Haguro. It is about 1 meter long and is used during the New Year celebrations.



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. . . . . H A I K U

kite, kigo for all spring


kite, tako 凧 (たこ)
raising a kite, tako age 凧揚げ(たこあげ)

kite fight, tako gassen 凧合戦(たこがっせん)
kite fite in Nagasaki, nagasaki no tako age
長崎の凧揚げ(ながさきのはたあげ)

paper kite, kami nobori 紙鳶(いかのぼり)
kite with picture, edako 絵凧(えだこ)
kite with Chinese characters, jidako 字凧(じだこ)
kite with YAKKO face, yakkodako 奴凧(やっこだこ)

kite like a fan, oogidako扇凧(おうぎだこ)
kite like a military leader's fan
gunbai, gunbaidako軍配凧(ぐんぱいだこ)

kite that makes a sound, unaridako うなり凧(うなりだこ)

Baramon kite from the Islands of Goto, Nagasaki
baramondako ばらもん凧(ばらもんだこ)
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line of the kite, tako no ito 凧の糸(たこのいと)
tail of the kite, tako no o 凧の尾(たこのお)


fine day for kite flying, takobiyor 凧日和(たこびより)

hooked kite, kakaridako 懸り凧(かかりだこ)
kite with cut line, kiredako 切れ凧(きれだこ)
"kite going wild", kuruidako 狂い凧(くるいだこ)

group of kite fliers, tako no jin
凧の陣(たこのじん)

mostly in a competition



切凧のくるくる舞やお茶の水
kire tako no kuru-kuru mau ya ocha no mizu

broken kite dancing
'round and 'round...
Ocha-no-Mizu


Kobayashi Issa
Tr. David Lanoue

Ochanomizu and Haiku



Kites as kigo in INDIA



. Black Kite, Milan noir (tonbi)
a bird of prey


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source : hikaru
Kunisada : Kites of Edo


Folk Toys of Japan :
. tako 凧 kite .


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