Japanese wit

I said my office is a non-territorial office meaning there are no desks, a small think pad is what I only have. I couldn't work without it. But suddenly it blacked out and couldn't reboot anymore. I couldn't write today's post during my lunch time, actually I couldn't do anything after that today. What a day.

I picked Japanese erotic Ukiyoe "Shunga" sometimes. Some Shunga are too much, I will say they carry jokes too far :-)　Generally Japanese are said to be "hard workers" and have "no emotion" and be "serious". But I think Japanese has our unique humor. In old paintings, "Choju giga" has nice wit, my favorite Ukiyoe "Kingyo zukushi" is very charming. We love them very much, and there are many items there are many items of those motif.

. Today Weekly Teino bee woman picked this medical Ukiyoe collection sites. WTBW said "even in such Ukiyoes, we can sense our unique humor". I agree! Look at old new paper and this pregnant one. Nice!

As an Edokko, I think Tokyo people had good humor as represented by Rakugo. But now, speaking of laughing and humor, it's Osaka.

Comments

[Julia]

Choju Gigas work is very nice. I love the slide show... so good that it is online and for free!
It reminds me a bit of the interactive scroll "Kidai Shôran", i always look at, when i am at the museum for eastasian art here in Berlin. You can look closely at the 12m scroll and can get detailed information about many of the 1000 persons and things you see on it - so interessting! i often thought about buying this cd-rom, because it is so nice, but unfortunatly it is quite expensive...

[Mari]

Hi there
Ukiyoe is very interesting. They are news paper, magazine, manga, textbook, portrait etc. It is not only art.

[Charles]

Interesting link to the medical prints.. I went to the Toppan Printing Museum and they have an exhibit that says ukiyo-e first started as printed talismans to prevent measles.

[Thrusher]

I didn't know about these non-territorial offices. Very interesting. With American's strong sense of entitlement and individual ownership, I think I would miss having my own space.

I think many Americans see Japanese as very serious, but I found Japanese people to be almost always friendly, smiling, happy and everyone I knew had a great sense of humor and liked joking. I miss Japan!!