returning slowly

2 weeks ago the Tohoku Earthquake struck off the coast of Japan causing a tsunami and ten of thousands of deaths and injuries. Its hard to imagine the anxiety, nauseousness and seasickness the aftershocks are causing those people in affected areas - let alone the grief of the lost of so many lives and the ongoing anxiety of the nuclear accidents at the Fukushima plant.


It's been hard to think about posting on Magnetic Glimpses at this time. I guess I do this see this blog as an ongoing artwork and sometimes its best to put art aside and respond in another way- which I have been doing on my more eclectic blog Tokyo Birdsong. 


In a very strange moment of serendipitous posting One Hundred Mountains the morning of the earthquake had posted an entry about Fuji. No sooner had I commented, that I noticed that my friend living in Osaka had updated her facebook status to say that there had been a large earthquake north of Tokyo. After several anxious days of watching the news with horror, Jules- a photographer (among other things)- posted to her blog a series of photos from that day's sunset at Kamakura with Fuji visible. I'm not sure if she did, but in some way, I took comfort in the beauty of the mountain. 

Diamond Fuji wishes

for your Valentines Day

The Lonely Planets guide to Hiking in Japan was my first point of contact about the craze of Fuji-viewing. Along with learning about nori-mono from this source, they also mentioned the Diamond Fuji phenomena:

For romantic spotters in Tokyo, 14 February (Valentine's Day) is the best day to see Fuji-san, 100kms away, with the sun going down directly behind its dish shaped peak. At the exact moment the sun dips behind the summit its rays appear as a giant diamond sitting on top of the mountain. The ultimate viewing point is from the top of the Ferris wheel at trendy Odaiba, but be warned, your planning and timing mist be better than good to spot this very special 'diamond Fuji' moment.

I didn't even try to see Fuji last Valentines Day as just about the whole of February was a consistent grey.

From youtube a series of shorts:
This one is of a Double Diamond (shot on the Red camera- resolution is amazing) rising sun with a reflection in one of the Lakes near the mountain, and this one of the sun setting by the same film makers at Lake Yamanaka; and finally another one from with a view from Tokyo city centre. The first one is the best to get a sense of what it must be like to see it.

This one is much lower resolution but it shows really well the sun setting exactly on the crest, the effect of the light and the view the mountain through the humidity and haze from Tokyo city.

Fujiyama Journal posted a beautiful shot yesterday with the snow covering the valley floor as well as the mountain down to the tree line.

Dear Fuji, my heart is broken that I wont see you this year, but I know you will be there waiting for me.

sunrise from Mt Shichimen

Two Mt Fuji postcards on A postcard a day.

new blog on the list

One Hundred Mountains is blog about the Japanese Alps, about climbing them now and the cultural history of climbing, in particular the book "Nihon Hyakumeizan" written by Fukada Kyūya about Japan's 100 famous mountains over 2,000 feet. (I have climbed two, one being Yufu-dake)


They have a great cartoon on today's post that anthropomorphises the mountains of Japan. The cartoon shows a detail of the island of Honshu with Fuji at the centre.

one year ago today I saw the mountain for the first time.

It's one year today since I landed in Tokyo and saw Fuji for the first time (although it took me a couple of weeks to get a blog started). This blog didn't form itself as an idea till much later, and still I have not finished the post about what I was imagining this project might be. But I guess I will save that for the one year anniversary of this blog- hopefully I will have some time then rather than this late night dash while I transfer files from various hard drives.

Me in my studio with my favourite Fuji self-portrait in Hakone and one channel of the seven that make up Feeders on the desktop.

a question answered

When I was in Japan in the first part of last year, I came across these wonderful Fuji stickers. I guessed that the red Fuji was for sunset or sunrise, and that the hawks where something do with the birds you usually see once you are up at that altitude, but for the life of me I could not work out what the eggplants where for. The mystery remained unsolved till I came home from my second trip in September and my dear friend Anna lent me a book- 100 views of Mount Fuji by Timothy Clark which is a catalogue that accompanied an exhibition of works mostly from the British Museum's collection. (this is not a very good review but is more or less summarises parts of the book)

The following information included in relation to a print "Three Lucky Dreams of the New Year" by Koryusai-ga. (Without the explanation I would have thought the print to be of two women, but it's a young man is holding the hawk.) There is an expression for good luck dreams on the New Year:

One Fuji, two hawk, three aubergine

Ichi Fuji, ni taka, san nasubi

Which I why I guess there are two hawks an three eggplants- Not sure if there is a significance to the 21 Mount Fuji's- Any ideas? The text is a good mix between scholarly writing and accessible information. Clark gives a good description of the work and also footnotes where you can chase up additional information or facts that back his options. The following quote has footnotes but I wont include them here.

The saying is said to list the famous products of Suruga Province, or alternatively, in a version attributed to Tokugawa Ieyasu, the three highest things in Suruga Province : Mt Fuji, Mt Ashitaka (sounds like taka, hawk) and the exorbitant price of the earliest aubergines of the season.

The generic 'taka' is used in the name of two Japanese birds- O-taka: Northern Goshawk (Accipter gentilis), which I saw at Oi-Yacho Koen; and Hai-taka: European Sparrow Hawk (Accipter nisus). There is also another Accipter: gularis: Japanese Lesser Sparrow Hawk, but in Japanese it does not have "taka" in its common name: Tsumi. (in case you stumbled upon this blog via Fuji searches or Shunga mostly likely- I also have another blog that has covers my nature interests and birdwatching- Tokyo Bird Song)

wrapped

It's wednesday again already!

Another from my archive, gifted wrapped for Abi

open journal

I've thought of this blog as a kind of open journal. Usually I have a strong resistance to allowing people into my working process, I don't even like talking about it with my PhD supervisors. So perhaps this a kind of talking at a tangent? or a kind of talking where it's a monologue? But anyway one of the nice things about posting, specifically the Secret Glimpses post...

(want to increase your traffic? just add a couple of bathhouse scenes. This is an apparently "new reproduction" of Torii Kiyonaga- there are so many changes- change of colours (red door hanging, wood floors), and all small details, like the patterns of the women's yukatas and the peeping tom missing essentially only the broadest compositional elements are there, and only of a detail.)

... is that it has lead to an exhibition, and therefore an opportunity to make something instead of just mulling it over in my head. The delightful Rebecca Mayo is curating a project for Impact7 that will be in her Dolls House gallery. The house this time will be located inside the artist/designer run gallery: Hand Held. Each artist in the show (others being Rebecca, Heather Hesterman, and Richard Harding) will get a room of the Dolls House, the title is: Inside-out, Outside-in.

Without giving too much away too early in the piece ( I hate being held to account to an idea I leave behind) I'll be working with the amount of neckties I have amassed recently... Vintage Pierre Cardin anyone?

more snow

Fuji 2 days ago- a winter wonderland from Fujiyama Journal.

I love the snow on the trees in the foreground. There have been a lot more snow falls since the first at the beginning of November and that the winter is really settling in and that snow is falling to the valley floor, so probably on the outskirts of Tokyo too.

the mountain feels very far away with the heat and humidity we are experiencing.

Cable car- Hakone

Starting a wordless wednesday thread.

From the archive: Cable car ride in Hakone, Feburary 2010