New books arrived!
Feb. 9th, 2008 05:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Maybe it's because
bovil and
kproche mentioned it to me twice, but Amazon.com sent me TWO copies of Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds. I could've sworn I only ordered one. No big, I'm sure I can pass the extra on to someone who will appreciate it. Also acquired, this on
jupiterorbit's recommendation, Peter Beagle's Tamsin.
And then there's the prizewinner.
Making of Japanese Kites: Tradition, Beauty and Creation by Masaaki Modegi and The Japan Kite Association (Japan Publications Trading, 2007) ISBN-10: 4889962220, $16.95 US.
Some of you may remember my earlier forays into researching and building The World's Crappiest Japanese Paper Kites. (In fact, the last one was a deliberate sacrifice to the wind kami at Estrella last year.) Trying to find anything more than the vaguest hints and references to kites in pre-Edo Japan was murderously frustrating. Paper and bamboo are fragile and there are no extant examples. Worse, I couldn't find any art depicting people flying the things until the high Edo period. All I had to go on were written mention of things described as kites, and the word of a traditional kite-maker in an interview from the 1970s saying that his family had been making Suruga dako since the 16th century. (See The Art of the Japanese Kite, by Tal Streeter, Weatherhill, 1974).
What a relief, it isn't just me. Modegi-san could not find any pre-Edo iconography or extant kites either and he's the Chairman of the Japan Kite Association and director of the Tokyo Kite Museum. While he does briefly discuss what is and isn't known about early kites, the focus of this lovely little book is how to build fifteen different traditional kites, in clear English with extensive, easy to read diagrams. (Measurements are metric, just so you know.)
Maybe now I can figure out how to build a Suruga dako that will spend more time in flight than nosediving into the ground.
Already I see a completely different bridle line arrangement than the one I found parrotted over and over on the internet.....
This is coming to Estrella. Where did I put the Elmer's?
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And then there's the prizewinner.
Making of Japanese Kites: Tradition, Beauty and Creation by Masaaki Modegi and The Japan Kite Association (Japan Publications Trading, 2007) ISBN-10: 4889962220, $16.95 US.
Some of you may remember my earlier forays into researching and building The World's Crappiest Japanese Paper Kites. (In fact, the last one was a deliberate sacrifice to the wind kami at Estrella last year.) Trying to find anything more than the vaguest hints and references to kites in pre-Edo Japan was murderously frustrating. Paper and bamboo are fragile and there are no extant examples. Worse, I couldn't find any art depicting people flying the things until the high Edo period. All I had to go on were written mention of things described as kites, and the word of a traditional kite-maker in an interview from the 1970s saying that his family had been making Suruga dako since the 16th century. (See The Art of the Japanese Kite, by Tal Streeter, Weatherhill, 1974).
What a relief, it isn't just me. Modegi-san could not find any pre-Edo iconography or extant kites either and he's the Chairman of the Japan Kite Association and director of the Tokyo Kite Museum. While he does briefly discuss what is and isn't known about early kites, the focus of this lovely little book is how to build fifteen different traditional kites, in clear English with extensive, easy to read diagrams. (Measurements are metric, just so you know.)
Maybe now I can figure out how to build a Suruga dako that will spend more time in flight than nosediving into the ground.
Already I see a completely different bridle line arrangement than the one I found parrotted over and over on the internet.....
This is coming to Estrella. Where did I put the Elmer's?