Crimson Rosella - my little bird of hope for 2012

Happy New Year! あけましておめでとう～

New Year's Postcard by Kata Kata, a couple working in Katazome in Tokyo http://blog.kata-kata04.com/

I am coming up to the halfway mark of my program as a research student here in Kyoto. I've been attempting to sum up all of the interesting little things I've found in books and articles and galleries into some kind of report so I can refocus my energies for the new school year starting in April.

One big "step backwards" for my research proposal last year was discovering that what I had thought were Australian parrots and birds in Japanese 18th and 19th century artworks were probably..most-likely...actually, closely related species from neighbouring Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and other islands. Having digested this, I found a way to 're-jig' my initial proposal so that it still fits the way I want (something along the lines of "Exotic foreign birds in Edo period Japanese art" as opposed to "Australian birds in Japanese Edo-period Art").

pretty but unfortunately South East Asian Parrots...

Still, I've still been hesitant to flatly claim none of the birds in these artworks are from Australia. The Dutch had very early (from about 1606) and on-going connections to Australia via their trading posts in Java and south-east Asia. Slightly later in the 1700's, British explorers and ships made their way to the great southern land too, stopping off in...Java (!) and various South Pacific and Asian locations. To my mind, there's a window there where goods from Australia could have found their way to Japan via South-east Asia. Perhaps.

One reason for me to cling to this hope is the humble Crimson Rosella. I've been through lists of parrots that were found in Edo Japan and found most of those species can be found in Indonesia as well as sometimes North Australia. However there is one species that is only found in Australia, the Crimson Rosella. Its Japanese name (アカクサインコ) is not so easily confused as the many names for varieties of lorikeets and cockatoos that occur in both Indonesia and Australia. Visually too, it's quite distinct from other species. Here is one artwork that has to be a Crimson Rosella.

This little guy arrived in Japan on a Dutch boat in 1823, relatively late.

I read today (in an article by Naohide Osono outlining exotic foreign animals brought into Japan pre 1868) that Crimson Rosella(s?) also arrived in Japan 1814. Oh the plot thickens..

Anyway, the reason you set out to research something is to really get to the bottom of it; you can't predict the conclusion you will come too. I have another year to find out all I can and keep making artwork at the same time.

Kyushu & A Japanese History Lesson 九州に行って来た

In mid October I took a little trip with my parents down to Kyushu for the first time where we spent a day in Fukuoka and two visiting Nagasaki.

My research here in Kyoto revolves around the depiction of foreign birds in Japanese art and part of that has involved looking into the history of international trade with Japan. Nagasaki has been an important link in this research as it was the location of Dejima, a manmade island off the harbour of Nagasaki where Dutch were given exclusive trading rights in the 18th century.
Going to Nagasaki I was interested to see how much of the old trading area still existed and hoped to read more about the history of the Dutch trading presence in Nagasaki.

Some beautiful karakami 唐紙 block printed wall paper in one of the rooms at the Dejima replica museum

What we found in Nagasaki was a beautiful and historically rich city. It has had brushes with Portuguese missionaries, Dutch merchants, Scottish entrepreneurs and Chinese merchants. These periods of its history are still visible in the city; Chinese style temples, Cathedrals, rows of beautiful arched stone bridges, Western style homes and buildings.

Meganebashi 眼鏡橋 The eyeglasses bridge, so called because the reflections cause the bridge to look like glasses

As for Dejima itself, there has been activity in recent years to reclaim the original Fan-shaped land of the small island which has been swallowed into the modern city of Nagasaki. Today you can visit a museum on the original site with reproduction buildings and a lot of very detailed and interesting information about what took place there. Its a little bit touristy of course but great to see.

Dejima Museum, a reconstruction project still in progress on the original site of the trading post of Dejima Island

From my research so far I knew about some of the things the Dutch had contributed to Japanese society already (coffee drinking, red bricks, mechanical clocks, beer, billiards potatoes, tomatoes, chocolate, glass making practices, medical knowledge, exotic animals…) but was surprised to learn of Scottish Entrepreneur Thomas Blake Glover’s (in Japan from 1859-1911) contributions. He was a clever business man, sinking money into whatever he saw to be profitable at the time, including shipbuilding, tea-roasting, coal-mining, beer brewing…you name it, if it was a business in Nagasaki, Glover probably had some share in it. He played a big part in establishing what are now Mitsubishi and Kirin Brewing Company and even received an Order of the Rising Sun for his contributions!

Thomas Glover certainly knew how to pick a good spot to build his house.

It's surprising to see how great were the contributions of non-japanese to the development of Japan. I don't think many Japanese people know very much about it. Maybe if they did, they wouldn't still have this tiny niggling anti-foreigner thing in the back of their collective psyche. Look how much people from other countries with other sets of knowledge and expertise can do for you country if you let them!

Anyway, it was great to see new parts of Japan, so very far removed both distance and history-wise from Kyoto. (And to go by bullet train was nice too!) Thanks Kyushu!


View over Nagasaki by night from the top of Mt Inasa. Pretty speccy!