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).
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:
(Today we’ll be introducing Joe Vig to Japanese LEGO builders. For an English introduction to Joe, read all about him on LUGNET.)
Brickshelf や LUGNET のヴィネット作品で、Joe Vig（ジョー・ヴィグ)という人物を見かけることがあります。ジョー・ヴィグとは何者なのでしょうか？今日は普通の和英の説明に変わって、ジョー・ヴィグを日本のレゴファンの皆様にご紹介したいと思います
ジョーは世界一アンラッキーで周囲に無頓着なレゴキャラなのです。彼は常に周りで何が起ころうとしているのか、わかっていません。強烈な電磁石のように悪運を引きつけますが、危険意識はゼロ！しかし残念ながら、今にも悪いことがおころうとしています。気をつけろ、ジョー！
ジョー・ヴィグはマイク・クラウリー氏（Mike Crowley）およびイリザリ兄弟ネルソンとパトリック（Nelson and Patrick Yrizarry）の意図に基づいているものです。元のアイデアは単純なレゴフィグを作り、Joe Food（食べ物ジョー）と名付け、付近のレストランで写真を撮ることでした。その写真をウェブに載してあちらこちらで現れてることを見せびらかしたかったのです。
いろんなことが重なってジョー・ヴィグは LUGNET のヴィネット作品の登場人物になりました。その結果で名前を「ジョー・ヴィグ」に変えました。（「ヴィグ」は「ヴィネット」の省略で、もちろん実在・架空の人物の名前ではありません。）
ジョー・ヴィグのアイデアには好意的な反響が大きく、間もなく世界中のレゴファンがジョー・ヴィグのヴィネットを作り始めました。２００５年の６月にLUGNET .vignette グループの管理者たちは第一回 [ジョー・ヴィグコンテスト] を開きました。将来もジョー・ヴィグを多くの作品で見ることを期待しています。
さて、皆さんも自分のヴィネットにジョー・ヴィグを使ってみませんか？
ジョーはもちろんアレンジにも気がつかない人物ですが、頭、胴、足は上記の部品を使用してください。また、ジョーは帽子をかぶるのが好きですが、色は”白”に限られています。
ジョーに何が起こるかはレゴファンの皆さん次第です。このプロジェクトの目的は創造力とヴィネット製作を啓蒙することですが、大事なのは楽しむこと！です。
それでは、ジョーに何かが起こる直前を表現したヴィネットを作りましょう！ジョーが気づいていない、ということに注意！
（ネルソンさんが LUGNET のために書いた文章をもとにこの記事を書きました。LUGNET の新しい 日本語版を編集して下さった Izzoさんにも大変有り難く思います。)
For those of you just joining us (welcome, BoingBoingers!), my other blog, Pan-Pacific Bricks, features cool LEGO creations from the many LEGO builders in Japan, along with a few of my own Japanese-themed creations. (I was born and raised in Japan.)
NOTE (2/25/06): Although I’m in the process of migrating my images to Flickr, there are still a fair amount of images hosted on a site called Brickshelf, which appears to be unstable at the moment. Check back later if you don’t see pictures in this post. (This is definitely going to make me switch to Flickr.)
My most recent set of creations is a series of minifigs based on historical and legendary people from Japan. Click the thumbnails to read more on Pan-Pacific Bricks:
Name: Kukai (空海) / Kobo Daishi (弘法大師 こうぼうだいし)
Dates: 774-835
Biography: Known after his death as Kobo Daishi, Kukai was the founder of Shingon-shu, one of the major sects of Japanese Buddhism. In 804, Kukai traveled to China, where he studied under Hui-kuo. Kukai returned to Japan in 806, bearing religious texts from various faiths. He founded a monastery at Mt. Koya outside Kyoto, where he was buried upon his death, and which continues to be the headquarters for Shingon Buddhism to this day.
Further reading:
Wikipedia (English), Wikipedia (日本語), Shingon Buddhist Int’l, Koyasan.org.
Name: Hattori Hanzou (服部半蔵 はっとりはんぞう)
Dates: 1541-1596
Biography: Member of the famous Iga Ninja clan, little is known about this mysterious man.
Further reading: Wikipedia (English), Wikipedia (日本語), Real Ultimate Power, Ninja Village
The Japanese Girl’s Day festival (Hinamatsuri) has inspired a number of great creations recently, including two I’ve featured here on PPB — by Izzo and Nelson Yrizarry.
Mumu joins these builders with his own version:
Joe discovers that there are grave consequences for foreigners who fail to remove their shoes upon entering a Japanese home.
(The image is a link to the gallery, when public. “Gaijin” means “foreigner” in Japanese.)
Name: Miyamoto Musashi (宮本武蔵 みやもとむさし)
Dates: ca. 1584-1645
Biography: Musashi was a famous swordsman of the Edo period. He is said to have won sixty duels, the first at age 13. According to legend, he arrived late at his last battle, with another famous swordsman named Sasaki Kojiro. Kojiro was so angry that he threw away his sword’s sheath. Musashi then said, “You have lost, Kojiro. Those who need no sheath are those who will die!” Musashi was also an author and a painter.
Further reading: The Book of Five Rings, Musashi, The Lone Samurai.
Name: Minamoto no Yorimitsu (源頼光 みなもとのよりみつ)
Dates: 944-1021
Biography: Yorimitsu was a legendary warrior from the Heian period of Japanese history. Although famous for many real-life exploits, he appears in several legends, including one in which he defeats the ogre (oni) Shuten Doji, disguised as an ascetic Buddhist monk, or yamabushi.
Further reading: Wikipedia (English), Wikipedia (日本語).
Bruce just posted a Valentine’s Day vignette by mumu, so why am I posting about it here on Pan-Pacific Bricks? Isn’t Valentine’s Day common to both the U.S. and Japan? Look closely at the minifigs in this vignette:
In Japan, girls are the ones expected to give chocolate to boys — not the other way around. The interesting thing is, Valentine’s Day on February 14th is followed a month later on March 14th by “White Day,” on which men give women chocolate. You can read all about Valentine’s Day in Japan here.
And what PPB post would be complete without a little something by Izzo? Nothing specifically Japanese about this, but it’s a lovely bar of chocolate:
Mmmmm… Chocolate…
Following up on his Hina-Matsuri vignette (previous PPB post), Nelson Yrizarry presents a vignette based on celebrations of Tango no Sekku, or Boy’s Day (now celebrated as “Children’s Day”).
Here’s what Nelson has to say:
Now known as “Children’s Day” in Japan (a National holiday), this is the day when sons are traditionally honored. Most notable are the large koinobori (carp) banners that are flown – one for each male son. The carp is considered as the most spirited of all fish, able to overcome obstacles such as strong currents – hence, it serves as a symbol of the desired strength and success of the family’s male childen.
I have incorporated other aspects of the Japanese culture – Father enjoying sake; a katanakake (sword stand); a small Zen garden, etc.
