Arnon Reisman - A Phillumenist: October 2013

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

The Japanese Warriors - themes associated with Wars, Military, Patriotism etc. are very popular among the collectors of Japanese labels

The Samurai

Samurai (侍?), usually referred to in Japanese as bushi (武士?, [bu͍ꜜ.ɕi̥]) or buke (武家?), were the military nobility of medieval and early-modern Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany persons in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau. In both countries the terms were nominalized to mean "those who serve in close attendance to the nobility," the pronunciation in Japanese changing to saburai. According to Wilson, an early reference to the word "samurai" appears in the Kokin Wakashū (905–914), the first imperial anthology of poems, completed in the first part of the 10th century (wikipedia - all right reserved).

The Japanese War Officers

How can an officer win the war with a baby in his hands?

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Just 4 more beautiful Ships labels...

A ship, a train and an airplane.
It sounds like a beginning of a nice song

"I see a ship" said the captain
(this label is too beautiful for not being a Japanese one,
so it's probably a Japanese for export to Indonesia)

Every ship has it's own sea

This is the close view of the Captain (2 labels above)

Do you remember the race between the monkey and the train?

Read more: The Race

So I got one of the lovely labels in it:

Labels of the Hinamatsuri : The Japanese Doll Festival, or Girls Day

Hinamatsuri

Doll's Day or Girls' Day, is a special day in Japan. Hinamatsuri is celebrated each year on March 3. Platforms covered with a red carpet are used to display a set of ornamental dolls (雛人形 hina-ningyō) representing the Emperor, Empress, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress of the Heian period. (from Wikipedia)

The custom dates from the Heian period (roughly 800~1200 AD) and emerged from a notion the dolls could protect one from–and thus “contain”–evil spirits. The “possessed” dolls were subsequently released in the rivers of Kyoto to float to the sea, taking their evil spirits along for the ride. (source: http://www.sse-franchise.com/soapbox/201203/03/the-japanese-doll-festival-or-girls-day/ )