May 5th is Children’s Day in Japan. Although called “Children’s Day” today, this day was in the past Boy’s Day, so many Boy’s Day traditions continue to be celebrated on May 5th. One such tradition is to fly multi-colored carp streamers, or koinobori — one for each male child in the household.
Japanese blogger inago100 has posted a nice koinobori:
Well, I never expected to be posting something by Classic-Castler Jojo here on PPB, but he’s just posted an exquisite torii in his “Things” gallery:
Jojo’s wonderful torii appears to be the famous “Floating Torii” at Itsukushima Shrine in Hiroshima prefecture:
Torii are found in or around Shinto shrines and other sacred places, most often serving as a gateway. (Although torii have been co-opted in western landscaping and architecture, torii are not generic gates, nor are they generically “Asian.” They have a specific religious significance and are distinctly Japanese, though similar structures do appear in other cultures. Using a torii as a gate in your “Asian-inspired” backyard rock garden would be like putting a Christian baptismal font in your TV room.)
I think I like LEGO graphic art as much as I like actual LEGO creations. Japanese blogger kazzen is a master of LEGO-themed graphic art populated by our favorite little plastic friends.
A month or so ago, he uploaded two cellphone wallpapers featuring a minifig decked out in World Baseball Classic gear:
How you get to these images and download them to your phone will probably vary by phone and by plan, but you can access both of them on this page.
No, I haven’t been neglecting this blog (well, maybe just a little — I do have a small backlog).
The reason there haven’t been that many posts recently here on PPB is that there haven’t been any major holidays being celebrated by Japanese builders, nor have there been any significant product launches that resulted in extensive discussions like there was with Exo-Force.
Ideally, I’d like to post at least twice a week (compared with a couple times a day over on my other LEGO blog), but there just hasn’t been enough subject matter. I guess it’s time for me to fill the gap myself with historical minifigs or something… ;-)
If you’d like to help me by pointing out Japanese or Asian-themed LEGO creations that I might have missed, just leave a comment (I’ll be notified by e-mail) or send me a message at dunechaser AT gmail DOT com.
I was extremely pleased that Japan won the World Baseball Classic last week. Hurray! To honor this victory, Azumu presented several baseball-themed creations on LEGO-BINGO. Here’s my favorite — a mosaic of Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners, by Brickshelf user junlego:
I’m really looking forward to the beginning of the MLB season. I’m even taking Monday, April 3 off from work to go see opening day at Safeco Field. I haven’t missed an opening day for four or five years now. Go Japan, go! Go Mariners, go! Go Ichiro, go!
The figure skating World Championships are apparently going on right now, and Moko was inspired to create 2006 Winter Olympic gold medalist Shizuka Arakawa as a LEGO minifig:
Nice skates!
A miniseries on TV in Japan called “Densha Otoko” (“Train Man”) told the story of a geek who helped a woman harrassed by a drunk on the train. As a window into Japanese geek (otaku) culture, it also included snippets of the protagonist’s favorite anime, a fake show called “Getsumen To Heiki Mina” (“Mina the Weapon-Bunny of the Moon”; rabbits live on the moon — didn’t you know?).
Brickshelf user nias has built an adorable Mina, complete with her double-carrot tails (or whatever they are):
The Japanese school year begins in April and ends in March, with a one-month summer break and a short winter break over New Years. (Just for comparison, elementary school students go to school 240 days a year, compared to 180 days in the United States.) Since it’s mid-March, it’s graduation time! Sixth-graders are graduating from elementary school, ninth-graders from middle school, and so on.
To honor graduating students, Mumu presents a vignette:
And younger LEGO builder Legokou celebrates his own graduation from sixth grade:
Mumu’s caps and gowns are really nice, but what I like about Legokou’s version is that he includes cherry blossoms (always associated with graduation) and the black canister in which each student receives their diploma.
A week or two ago, I posted about a small creation Ichigou made based on the long-running manga (Japanese comic book) series Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.
Well, Ichigou has been posting vignette after vignette to a Brickshelf gallery (as featured on VignetteBricks). It’s almost like Ichigou wants to dethrone Izzo as the king of the vignette series! ;-)
Anyway, Ichigou has kindly posted snippets of the scenes he’s recreated as vignettes. Here are a few rough translations:
Demon, Part 3
“Hey! Polnareff! I’m gonna bite that bauble of yers right off!”
High Priestess, Part 3
“It’s, it’s a stand!”
“It, it was disguising itself as the seafloor! It’s, it’s huge!”
Anubis, Part 3
“It’s under your chin, Polnareff!”
“What?!”
“It’s me, you idiot — the reminder of Anubis’ stand.”
This manga has a complicated storyline and deep mythology that’s unlikely to be meaningful unless you’ve read it. For example, “stands” are “manifestation of an individual’s innate power over the ‘ripple’ and represent the individual’s psyche.” Huh? If you’re interested, Wikipedia has an excellent overview of the storyline, characters, and terminology.
Mumu presents “Encounter on the Gojo Bridge:”
Story: When he was young, Minamoto-no-Yoshitsune was called Ushiwakamaru. A famous swordsman named Saito Musashibo Benkei had posted himself at Gojo bridge in Kyoto. Benkei had taken 999 swords by defeating other swordsmen in duels. Ushiwakamaru defeated Benkei, who then became Ushiwakamaru’s most loyal follower.
Oh, and this is another shiritori entry.
