gurdymonkey | Shopping karma (Reply)

I probably shouldn't've done it, but the lure of Moe's on a free Sunday morning with no obligations was irresistible. I had a tough time deciding what could come home with me too, particularly as I ran into a man who was also hunting the Asian art section for books on Japanese architecture and we kept pointing things out to each other. (Idiot. I should've introduced myself. He was nice. This is what comes of automatically cataloguing oneself as undatable - one forgets what to do. But I found the Asakusa ryokan he recommended online just now! Inexpensive, traditional and conveniently located. Consider yourself bookmarked if I ever scrape up the airfare! )

I invoked "shopping karma" on the volume on prehistorica Haniwa figures (it's an obscure enough subject it may sit on that shelf awhile longer), the one on the kimono art of Itchiku Kubota (if it's not there the next time, I can find it online used as it's not that rare), and the one on relations between Japan and the Netherlands was squirreled away in the Art & Antiquarian section and while interesting, it's all post period.

So what did I come home with? Isles of Gold: Antique Japanese Maps, including a poster sized birds' eye view of Japan printed in the early 19th c. I've always liked maps anyway - when reading historical accounts of places you don't know they're an essential. And non-standardized historical maps tell us a lot of how their makers conceived of the world around them. I admit I was inspired to this choice because the A&A room had some Edo period Japanese maps of Kyoto and Edo (Tokyo) laid out in the window. The Kyoto one was $900 and the colors were so bright you'd think it was printed Friday. I NEED a sugar daddy.

The other, pointed out to me by The Architecture Guy, is the fascinating Wearing Propaganda: Textiles on the Home Front in Japan, Britain and the United States. Back when I was a member of A Forum I No Longer Frequent, the occasional WWII themed kimono would turn up on eBay and forum members would link to it and cry out in righteous horror over it. Much of the content from this museum exhibition (c. 2005) includes Japanese pieces, but the Allies did it too, if primarily in the form of womens' scarves. The haori that appears on the cover is a delight of design even if those are "enemy planes" on it. And this warplane kimono paired with a parachute motif obi is a knock-out.