My series of Japanese historical and legendary characters stalled when I couldn’t figure out how to make the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu’s hat (image from Wikipedia; click to read Ieyasu’s biography):
Nelson Yrizarry has solved this problem with a unique combination of pieces, and I also like Nelson’s solution for a folded fan:
Last November, I blogged about the LEGO King Championship event broadcast on TV in Japan. Now, via the aptly named TV in Japan we have actual footage of the show:
Sanrio (of Hello Kitty fame) recently released a counterpart to pink-hooded bunny My Melody called “Kuromi.” Apparently there’s a TV show centered around My Melody in Japan (official Web site and clip on YouTube — both in Japanese).
Toshiya has built a nice little Kuromi statue, complete with key, black hood, and spiky devil tail:
Yes, that’s a red skull on Kuromi’s hood.
I’ve been subscribed to Japanese builder Ken Takeuchi’s blog for some time. (Ken goes by “Ken-Tucky” online.) However, it wasn’t until Soren Roberts mentioned Ken’s creations as a source of inspiration for his recent “Heavy Missile Cruiser” (Blocklog post) that I took the time to explore Ken’s Web site, LEGO Works.
Since 1998, Ken has been posting fantastic LEGO creations. (And it’s interesting to see his building style evolve over the last eight years — integrating newly available parts and new building techniques.) With an English version of his LEGO pages, exploring his site is well worth your time. To whet your appetite, I’d like to introduce a few of my personal favorites.
One of dozens of micro-scale vehicles in his “L.E.G.O Force,” here’s an awesome “Armed Starfighter Carrier”:
Demonstrating that Ken’s not just a Spacer, here’s the bathouse building from Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away:
A whole fleet of micro-scale World War II planes:
A camel Ken built while participating in the LEGO King Championship TV show:
The city of Nikko in Japan is a major Buddhist and Shinto center, most famous for housing the tombs of the Tokugawa shoguns. German builder Thomas Bendt (Triathletus on Brickshelf) has just posted a recreation of the famous pagoda at Toshogu shrine:
The thumbnails in the gallery (and even the image above) don’t do justice to this stunning creation. Be sure to check out the full-size pictures in Thomas’ gallery. While you’re at it, be sure to check out other amazing creations by Thomas, including Pulguksa temple (in Korea) and a Thai temple.
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!
