Tag Archives: Japan

From samurai and ninjas to giant mecha like Gundam or the beautiful films of Hayao Miyazaki, Japanese history and culture inspire LEGO builders all over the world. With contributors fluent in Japanese, The Brothers Brick also brings you coverage of the people and events in the large LEGO fan community in Japan itself.

It’s Graduation Time!

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.

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The New King of the Vignette Series?

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.

Technorati tags: LEGO Japan Manga Anime Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Brickshelf

Encounter on the Gojo Bridge

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.

Technorati tags: LEGO Japan History

LEGO Brand Cafes?!

Apparently so:

(Via The LEGO System.)

Technorati tags: LEGO Food

Japanese Vehicles by Masahiro Yanagi

I saw vehicles like these all the time growing up in Japan. Makes me kind of homesick.

A 7-11 delivery truck:

And a mail truck:

Japanese House by Dellta

Wow. That is all I have to say.

Ikkyu

Name: Ikkyu (一休いっきゅう)
Dates: 1394-1481
Biography: Ikkyu was a Buddhist priest during the Muromachi period in Japanese history. Ikkyu was a poet and calligrapher, and he is credited with contributing to the tradition of the tea ceremony. He is also remembered as a mischievous boy (as shown in the animated TV series “Ikkyu-san”) and a bit of a libertine.
Further reading Wikipedia (English), Wikipedia (日本語).

Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Name: Toyotomi Hideyoshi (豊臣秀吉とよとみひでよし)
Dates: 1536-1598
Biography: Toyotomi Hideyoshi was a powerful daimyo (leader or warlord) who brought the Civil War (Sengoku) era to an end by unifying Japan under his rule. According to some scholars, he had an extra thumb on his right hand. Toyotomi Hideyoshi built the famous green-roofed castle in Osaka, where his crest remains the symbol of Osaka Prefecture to this day.
Additional reading: Wikipedia (English), Wikipedia (日本語).

Japan, 1977

I found this in my mom’s Flickr and had to post it.

Awwww, aren’t I cute? (I do have LEGO photos from that era — I’ll have to dig them out and scan them.)

（七五三の時の写真かな？）

Katou Danzou

Name: Katou Danzou (加藤段藏かとうだんぞう)
Dates: 1503-1569
Biography: Nicknamed “Flying Katou” (「飛び加藤」), this legendary ninja is shrouded in mystery. One legend says that he swallowed a bull in front of a crowd of people.
Further reading: Wikipedia (Japanese only).

Oda Nobunaga

Name: Oda Nobunaga (織田信長おだのぶなが)
Dates: 1534-1582
Biography: One of the fiercest and most feared daimyo of the Civil War (Sengoku) era in Japanese history. Born to a regional nobleman, Nobunaga spent most of his life as a warrior. By the time he died (by his own hand, after being surrounded by enemy forces), he had conquered nearly all of Japan.
Additional reading: Wikipedia (English), Wikipedia (日本語).

Two Vignettes from Sugegasa

Sugegasa has recently posted two uniquely Japanese vignettes. (Bruce credits Sugegasa as one of the earliest builder of LEGO vignettes — the “haiku” of LEGO building styles.)

Japanese bathtubs are smaller and deeper than American bathtubs. You wash off outside first, and then you soak in the water. Many bathtubs have hot water heaters attached directly to the bathtub (kind of like a hot tub), and some of the more old-fashioned bathtubs have chimneys, like this one in “Chimney Bathtub” (a continuation of the long-running shiritori word game):

A wonderful wintertime tradition in Japan is to sit around a kotatsu and eat mandarin oranges, or mikan. Kotatsu are low tables skirted with a quilt and a heater underneath. Mmmm…toasty… In this vignette, one of Sugegasa’s recurring minifig characters sits at a kotatsu eating mikan and watching TV: