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| 19 Century Japanese Toys http://skullbrain.org/legacy/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=19452 |
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| Author: | abelincolnjr [ Mon Mar 17, 2008 2:55 pm ] |
| Post subject: | 19 Century Japanese Toys |
Saw this over on Boing Boing and Drawn: 
19th Century Japanese toy paintings... pretty cool http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2008/03/japanese-toy-designs.html http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2007/10/toying-with-japan.html http://ningyodo.library.pref.osaka.jp/cgi-bin/book_list.cgi?volume=2&number=6&g_id=1 EDIT:Concentrated all the links in one place |
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| Author: | kichigai [ Mon Mar 17, 2008 3:25 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
thanks for posting these & the link. that octopus puppet on the link is really neat! |
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| Author: | liquidsky [ Mon Mar 17, 2008 3:44 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Thanks for turning me onto Drawn. |
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| Author: | abelincolnjr [ Mon Mar 17, 2008 3:56 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Glad ppl like em! I guess this should be in Vintage Vinyl tho eh? |
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| Author: | Dean [ Mon Mar 17, 2008 4:05 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Extraordinary stuff, thank you for posting the link! It's cool to see that some of them exist to this day in very similar form (e.g. the tops.) The bird-on-wire toys look delicate and very beautiful. |
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| Author: | vog_island [ Mon Mar 17, 2008 5:09 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
beautiful stuff. It would be great to see vinyl makers in Japan drawing on older traditions like these. I'm actually surprised that interpretations of yokai (i.e. gegege no kitaro) don't show up more often. |
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| Author: | Dean [ Mon Mar 17, 2008 5:15 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
vog_island wrote: beautiful stuff. It would be great to see vinyl makers in Japan drawing on older traditions like these. I'm actually surprised that interpretations of yokai (i.e. gegege no kitaro) don't show up more often. Oh, I'd say that several of the pachi sofubi makers include nods to Japanese history in their toys, perhaps most obviously Katsura-san of RxH. Sorry if that's different from what you'd meant specifically. Also, in case you didn't know already, Sunguts has been on a real roll with GeGeGe no Kitaro toys lately. EXTREMELY hard to land in the USA, but he's still making them. The most recent ones have been really cool. I'll post some pictures once I have a few more. I like Sunguts' Kitaro toys more than ones I've seen by other companies. Some of the string puppet toys at the link remind me of some very old European Christmas ornaments in my family's collection. Makes me wonder if they were inspired by Japanese toys ... the similarity is so strong. |
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| Author: | vog_island [ Mon Mar 17, 2008 5:23 pm ] |
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I've seen 1 or 2 of those kitaro toys--I'd love to see more. I can definitely see the links in RxH figures. I just went to a great exhibit in Minneapolis (mostly scroll paintings & textiles) so this has been on my mind... |
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| Author: | Dean [ Mon Mar 17, 2008 5:37 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
The website can be pretty daunting, but try clicking around: www.sunguts.com You'll come across some of the Kitaro toys, somewhere in there. Sorry Abe for the "drift." I wish he'd do some Lone Wolf and Cub figures. |
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| Author: | abelincolnjr [ Mon Mar 17, 2008 5:41 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
No sweat on the drift I love teh SunGuts Xoco, do you remember who did the vinyl figure of the old Japanese statues from a billion years ago? It's the guy with Blopus type eyes |
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| Author: | keiboba [ Mon Mar 17, 2008 5:43 pm ] |
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I'm pretty sure that guy with the blobpus looking eyes was made by Marmit. |
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| Author: | Dean [ Mon Mar 17, 2008 7:02 pm ] |
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Yeah, Marmit is doing the Jomon era Doguu figures. I pre-ordered mine via K-T (sorry S7, jumped the gun there) what seems like two months ago ... still no word on shipment. I'll have to check up. I don't think anyone has them yet. 
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| Author: | akum6n [ Mon Mar 17, 2008 7:05 pm ] |
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I think the Dogu replicas were supposed to come out this month, if I remember correctly. |
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| Author: | Dean [ Mon Mar 17, 2008 7:16 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Thanks akum6n, I don't remember that but I'll be patient. The fact that nobody has them yet tells me that I shouldn't worry. I trust K-T anyway. Back to an earlier point, it's the cultural richness and sense of lineage that I love so much in kaiju and other Japanese vinyl. Whether it's the incorporation of ancient classical motifs or pop culture from recent decades, it's all good and enriches the figures' resonance. There's something about Japanese ingenuity and quality of execution that appears to have been consistently refined throughout the ages. Because of aesthetic differences it might take awhile for unfamiliar westerners to come to appreciate those aesthetics. I don't mean to condescend (much LOL) but I think this might be why you sometimes see people dismissing kaiju on western toy boards as being "melted wax with sloppy spray paint." It's not just unfamiliarity with Godzilla movies per se. They're perceiving Asian aesthetics without jumping outside of Western perspective. On the other hand, I think these ancient Japanese toys would hold appeal for just about anyone. |
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| Author: | sndbyte [ Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:25 pm ] |
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hey, I have one of those paper toys hanging above my desk: 
He was a flat paper ball that you had to puff up by blowing air into. |
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| Author: | Joe [ Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:27 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
All those illustrations are great! |
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