Three Japanese Ukiyo-e Artists

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The eBook for this week features the art of ukiyo-e artists from the late 1700s through the first half of the 1800s. The artists are Chōbunsai Eishi, Eishōsai Chōki, and Katsushika Hokusai (links are to the Wikipedia entry for each artist). The book is the catalog from an exhibition of their prints in Paris in 1913. I have included 6 sample images from the book…but there are 118 plates in all – so well worth taking a look at the art work in the online books itself.

Yeishi, Choki, Hokusaï : estampes japonaises tirées des collections de MM. Bing, Bouasse-Lebel, Bullier...[et d'autres] et exposées au Musée des arts décoratifs en janvier

Missouri Botanical Garden – September 2023

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I visited the Missouri Botanical Garden for the second time – this time with my husband rather than my daughter. Both of us enjoy garden photography! We timed our visit to see the Chihuly glass exhibition before it ended…more on that in tomorrow’s post. Today I am focused on the garden itself. The month since my previous visit had brought some seasonal changes: Fall leaves were thick near the entrance and scattered elsewhere in the garden.

Fall crocus were blooming.

I like to experiment with light – the center of a flower very bright…the background black.

Sometimes there are plants that catch my attention and I take a single picture to capture what I saw.

Waterlilies are always worth close looks.

The Climatron houses plants that would not survive in Missouri weather. It even includes a walkway behind a waterfall!

There were bees and butterflies that were busy – but still enough for portraits.

The Japanese Garden is one of my favorites: the foliage changing color, very large koi, lanterns…zigzag walkway over the water.

It was a good day in the garden – not as hot as a month earlier!

eBotanical Prints – August 2023

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Twenty more books were added to the botanical print collection this month – available for browsing on Internet Archive. The first 4 books in August were Japanese flower books by Bairei Kono from 1901 – the year one of my grandfathers was born.

The next three were published in the mid-1800s…not exactly botanical print books but about plants – their depiction, relationship to religion, and uses.

The next three are research publications from the Missouri Botanical Garden published in 1991.

The remaining 10 books are George Engelmann’s scanned botanical notebooks from the mid-1800s. He evidently made his notebooks from whatever paper was available…and used a variety of pencils!

Overall – quite a range of publications!

The whole list of 2,695 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the August 2023 books with links to the volumes and sample images is at the bottom of this post.

Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the August 2023 eBotanical Prints!

Sōka hyakushu V1 pt 1 * Kono, Bairei * sample image * 1901

Sōka hyakushu V1 pt 2 * Kono, Bairei * sample image * 1901

Sōka hyakushu V2 pt 1 * Kono, Bairei * sample image * 1901

Sōka hyakushu V2 pt 2 * Kono, Bairei * sample image * 1901

Lessons in flower painting * Andrews, James * sample image * 1836

A scripture herbal * Callcott, Maria * sample image * 1842

Wanderings among the wild flowers :how to see and how to gather them : with remarks on the economical and medicinal uses of our native plants * Thomson, Spencer * sample image * 1857

The ethnobotany of Aublet's histoire des plantes de la Guiane Françoise (1775) * Plotkin, Mark J.; Boom, Brian M., Allison, Malorye * sample image * 1991

Flora of Nigeria, Caryophyllale * Ghazanfar, Shahina A.  * sample image * 1991

Pollen and spores of Barro Colorado Island * Roubik, David W.; Moreno, Jorge Enrique * sample image * 1991

George Engelmann :botanical notebook 38 : Yucca (Agavaceae) * Englmann, George * sample image * 1851

George Engelmann:  botanical notebook 4 : Callitrichaceae * Englmann, George * sample image * 1860

George Engelmann :botanical notebook 18 : Gentianaceae * Engelmann, George * sample image * 1847

George Engelmann :botanical notebook 21 : Cuscuta  * Engelmann, George * sample image * 1839

George Engelmann : botanical notebook 27 : Nyctagineae, Chenopodiaceae, Polygonaceae, Aristolochiaceae, Loranthaceae, Urticaceae, Platanaceae, Juglandaceae, Fagaceae, Betulaceae, Salicaceae * Engelmann, George * sample image * 1842

George Engelmann :botanical notebook 10 : Phyllocactus, Disocactus, Epiphyllum, Lepismium, Rhipsalis * Englmann, George * sample image * 1856

George Engelmann :botanical notebook 45 : Polyanthus, Sagittaria, Echinodorus, Najadaceae, Najas, Potamogetonaceae, Cyperaceae, Gramineae * Engelmann, George * sample image * 1840

George Engelmann :botanical notebook 9 : Echinocereus, Cereus, Eulychnia, Pilocereus * Engelmann, George * sample image * 1846

George Engelmann :botanical notebook 8 : Cereus  * Engelmann, George * sample image * 1846

George Engelmann :botanical notebook 57 : Juniperus * Englmann, George * sample image * 1850

Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden – May 2023

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The Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden was the first part of the Springfield Botanical Gardens we walked during my sister’s visit. The cherry trees, that were blooming last time I visited, have their green foliage now and the summer flowers are beginning to bloom. Yellow flag irises are blooming along the edges of most of the ponds. I always photograph the lanterns!

 This time I noticed the pine in the meditation garden…with larger rounded stones. My sister and I made small cairns on the posts of the garden (mine is pictured below).

There was a bird to observe too: a yellow crowned night heron…looking for breakfast at the edge of a small island in one of the ponds. We stayed far enough away from the bird – it ignored us! I experimented with a blurred foreground (grass) in one of the pictures.

Overall – an enjoyable stroll…and then we headed over to the main garden intent on seeing some of the areas my sister had not seen the last time she came to Springfield (when we moved to the area last June). That’s the topic of tomorrow’s post….

Japanese Pottery

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James Lord Bowes was a wealthy Liverpool (UK) wool broker that became an authority on Japan and its art. He published his 3-volume work about Japanese Pottery in 1890, the year he also opened the first museum in the western world dedicated to Japanese art. The books are available as eBooks from Internet Archive. Their publication in 1890 makes them historical…and they were, from the being, about art. Enjoy them from both perspectives!

Gardens Aglow

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We walked through the Gardens Aglow event at the Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden in Springfield, MO last Friday. It was a wonderful way to celebrate our first winter holidays in Missouri…will become an annual tradition from now on.

We got there shortly after the opening at 5 PM. There were a steady stream of cars arriving but there were people directing parking which eliminated confusion; it was a short walk from where we parked to the entrance and there was no line although next year I will plan to buy tickets in advance.

My husband and I had enjoyed the Brookside Gardens lights during the many years we lived in Maryland and found ourselves comparing the two displays. The lights in both places used the gardens as a theme and the trees as scaffolding. The lights at Mizumoto seemed brighter (maybe slightly larger LEDs?) and they had more water to use for reflections/dark areas of the display.

In some ways it was easier to photograph the lights this year because the animations were changes in light color within a fixed grid rather than across a space. I liked the wall of color…watching as it moved through a cycle of colors.

There was a weeping cherry in lights; the tree underneath was probably a weeping cherry too!

The arched bridge over a water feature became magical with all the lights and a shed looked like a gingerbread house.

I managed to notice two Japanese lanterns and maybe next year I will try to photograph more of them. They don’t have lights themselves but offer a link to the place that is not as obvious looking at the lights.

There were several butterflies along the way that were photo opportunities…a person could become the body of the butterfly! This was something new to us…lots of fun; I was glad they had a small butterfly too (but didn’t see any children getting their picture taken).

We spent about an hour strolling the loop through the garden…enjoying the lights and happy noises of people around us.

Ducks, Geese, and Swans of the World (eBooks)

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Nagamichi Kuroda was a Japanese aristocrat and ornithologist. Two of his books (in Japanese) published in 1912 and 1913 are available from Internet Archive…worth a look for the illustrations. I’ve selected a sample illustration from each book.

Geese and Swans of the World

As I browsed these books, I wondered how many of the birds he documented still survive in viable numbers.

Kuroda lived a long time and published books on Javanese birds and Parrots…so there will be more of his books to enjoy as the copyrights expire. Both World Wars probably impacted his work; the books available now were published before World War I and the next ones mentioned I the Wikipedia entry are in the early 1930s and then beginning again in the 1950s. The Wikipedia entry was short on details of his life.

Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory Grounds and Aquarium

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Continuing from yesterday’s post about our visit to Belle Island, Detroit, Michigan….

The conservatory has a koi pond that had some large specimens that seemed particularly dense near the waterfall. I liked the turtle fountain…reminded me of similar ones at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. I wondered what happened to the koi pond during the winter. Detroit must get very cold.

The structure of the conservatory has some high portions and there are some plants that have grown very tall…filling the spaces.

The grounds are grassy areas with some flower beds that were beginning to fade. I took a few macro images

There was a black squirrel that zipped across the very wet grass (we dodged the soggiest areas). There were black squirrels in London, Ontario too – more than the gray/brown ones.

The grounds also included a Japanese lantern and tower.

We went into the Aquarium. It reminded me of the

Washington DC aquarium that was in the Department of Commerce building; it closed in 2013 but I remembered touring it when I was pregnant with my daughter back in 1989…and becoming very queasy from the fish smell.  The aquarium in Washington DC was completed in 1932. The one on Belle Island has been operational since 1904! They used the lull during the pandemic for renovation…it seemed to be in great shape (and no fishy smells). The lighting was such that it was easier to get reasonably good pictures through the glass! I particularly enjoyed the puffer fish, brittle stars, sea horses, and anemones.

Overall – our visit to Belle Island took about 2 hours. We headed back into Detroit to find a restaurant before we continued our journey to London, Ontario.

Designs of Kyoto: a collection of design for silk and cotton textiles

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The two volumes of Designs of Kyoto: a collection of designs for silk and cotton textiles (volume 1 and volume 2) were published in 1906 and are available on Internet Archive. I’ve selected 2 sample images from both volumes.

I enjoyed the books – lots of nature themes and ideas for Zentangle patterns. Some of them looked very abstract – geometric – hits of realism. There is a modern quality to many even though they are more than 100 years old. Maybe nature images are timeless as long as the animal/plant depicted still exists in our world.

Silk and cotton are luxuries now – the inexpensive fabrics are synthetic creating a lot of ‘fast fashion’ with interesting fabric patterns….like these.

Flowers End

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Cut flowers only last a week or two. Sometimes they dry and retain a more subtle beauty. They are fragile. I’m going to make up a dry vase of flowers that have made it to this state. They could last the rest of the season.

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Others collapsed when their stem stops transporting enough water to keep the flower upright.

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I decided to photograph the petals of this flower – in various configurations. The grid is the paper cutter base (I use it to cut Zentangle tiles from light weight cardboard or card stock); the markings are ½ inch.

I got more than I had bargained for when I discovered a small insect on the flower as I took the petals apart. The jeweler’s loupe was close, so I took some pictures of the insect using that magnification…also on the paper cutter base. It appears to be covered with pollen!

These flowers will never produce seeds – which might have been a possibility if they’d stayed on the plant. The ones that don’t dry will go in the compost now…the ones that go into the dry flower arrangement will be enjoyed a little longer.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Ohara Koson art. Internet Archive has a collection of 185 of his prints available here. I picked several of my favorites from the collection to include here as samples. He was a Japanese artist active in the late 1800s/early 1900s. A little art….every day.

The Umbrella Academy. My husband and I are enjoying the new season of the series. We limit ourselves to 2 episodes per day to make the activity last a little longer…add it to the variety of our days rather than binging on it all at once.

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Sunset. I finally looked at pictures taken recently in my camera…and found pictures I took of the sunset the day before the tropical storm came through. Noticing something beautiful toward the end of a day always makes the rest of my day seem better too. A good crescendo isn’t alone, it makes what comes before special too!

3 Free eBooks – November 2019

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So many wonderful books available online. Here are three I explored this month.

Freer Gallery of Art. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery; Smithsonian Institution. Annual Records for 2003-2010. Asiatica 2003-2010. 8 volumes available from Internet Archive here. Images (and short articles) from the annual record of these museums. I choose a sample image from each of the 8 volumes.

Mason, Otis Tufton. Aboriginal American Basketry: Studies in a Textile Art without Machinery. Washington: Government Printing Office. 1904. Available from Internet Archive here. A large book – over 800 pages with over 200 plates (a few in color). Some of the baskets are simple and utilitarian…other are works of art (and maybe still utilitarian as well).

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Cort, Louise Allison. Seto and Mino Ceramics. Washington: Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution. 1992. Available from Internet Archive here. Dark-glazed, conservative Chinese-inspired ceramics from two Japanese ceramics centers.

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Free eBooks – October 2019

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Beautiful images from 3 books published in the mid to late 1800s….

Takahashi, Eiji. Kodai moyo shikizu ko. Tokyo: Santokukai. 1850. Available from Internet Archive here. This book was a mix of scenes from nature and designs. I enjoyed both. The scene with herons reminded me of birds in the snow (I remembered years ago the Heron Cam at Cornell’s Sapsucker Pond showing a bird hunkered on their nest during a late season snow…keeping eggs warm. The design pages gave me lots of ideas for Zentangle® patterns!

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Colling, James Kellaway. Examples of English mediaeval foliage and coloured decoration, taken from buildings of the twelfth to the fifteenth century. London: author and BT Batsford. 1874. Available from Internet Archive here. More potential Zentangle® patterns…and I like the botanical skew…so many leaf and petal shapes! Colling was an architect that was well known for his architectural and decoration drawings and art.

Picard, Edmond. El Moghreb al Aksa : une mission belge au Maroc. Bruxelles: F. Larcier. 1889. Available from Internet Archive here. The author was a Belgian jurist and writer…and patron of the arts. I happened upon this book about Morocco (written in French so I was browsing for the pictures) while the Arab world was in the news again with the Turkish surge into Syria. Of course, the scenes in much of the Arab world have changed considerable since the 1890s…and much of what was historically precious and valued by inhabitants is pockmarked or destroyed with weaponry that didn’t exist until well after the 1890s. The main emotion, even from afar, is sadness for the peoples and the places.

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

4 Free eBooks – July 2018

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Last month I have 4 eBooks to highlight and the same is true for this months – so I gave up and changed the title from 3 to 4. I had a lot of books to choose from…went for a bit of variety.

Yōfu gajō (v. 1). Kyōto-shi: Yamada Unsōdō. Published originally in the Meiji period, 1868-1912. Available from Smithsonian Libraries here.  I liked the scenery in this volume – muted colors except for the red that pops. In the image below – do you think it is a Japanese maple? This was one of the last books in the collection of Japanese books available from this site; if you want to take a look at the whole collection – do so from the Japanese Illustrated Books from the Edo And Meiji Period page.

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Andō, Hiroshige. Tokaido gojusantsugi. Published originally in the Edo Period, 1600-1868. Available from Smithsonian Libraries here. I couldn’t resist two images from this book – rain and snow. I think the snow is my favorite because of the pink….maybe sunrise?

Catlow, Agnes. Drops of water : their marvelous and beautiful inhabitants displayed by the microscope. London: Reeve and Benham. 1851. Available from Internet Archive here. The book was published just before or early in the Victorian surge in microscopy and became one of her most successful books. She was also one of the early science writers that wrote science books for young students.

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The Craftsman. New York: United Crafts. A magazine founded and edited by the American furniture designer Gustav Stickley and published from October 1901 to December 1916. All issues are available from the University of Wisconsin Library’s Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture here. I am working my way through the issues a year at a time. I’m up to 1907 as of yesterday.

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There are lots of ideas that would work in modern situations….like hanging curtains far enough away from a window to allow chairs to be in front of the windows without having any curtains at all in the way of the light. I can imagine sitting in the chairs on a sunny winter day with sun streaming in…closing the curtains so that the area gets cozy warm…reading or writing on my laptop or creating a Zentangle.

3 Free eBooks – June 2018

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I picked 4 books instead of 3 in June because of the first two were about the same place – New York – and I thought they were interesting history.

Wittemann, Adolph. Select New York. New York: A. Wittemann. 1889. Available from Internet Archive here. This book includes photographs of New York and almost all of them include a tangle of electrical wires…at the beginning of the electrification of the city when there was a lot of chaos and little standardization.

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Wittmann, Adolph. New York: An Album of Photographs. Brooklyn: Wittemann. 1900. Available from Internet Archive here. The photographs have been tinted and there are no wires at all. Were the electrical conduits underground by 1900 or did the publisher manage to take them out of the photographs?

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Lear, Edward. Illustrations of the family of Psittacidae, or parrots: the greater part of them species hitherto unfigured, containing forty-two lithographic plates, drawn from life, and on stone. London, England: E. Lear. 1832. Available from the Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture here. I was surprised to find this book of parrot illustrations…but the same man that wrote the poem ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’ I remember from my childhood!

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Wantanabe, Seitei. Seitei kachō gafu v. 2. Okura Mogabe, Toyko, Meije 23. 1890. Available from Smithsonian Libraries here. I enjoyed the Japanese artwork…like the type of nature photography I like to do. I wanted to be in the place seeing a bird walking in a wetland – perhaps it was early morning.

Free eBooks – April 2018

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It is so easy to find historical books that are available online – scanned with care and ‘free.’ I can remember a time when I went to libraries (often not finding the book I was looking for) and how expensive it could be to buy books. Now I find myself rarely spending money on books. There are such riches of books these day. The world of books has changed in my lifetime almost as monumentally as the advent of the printing press! Here are three picks from the books I found this month.

Ogata, Kori; Aikawa,Minwa. Korin gashiki. Kikuya Kihē, Kyōto, Bunka 15. 1818. Available from Smithsonian Libraries here. In the image I chose to clip from the book – I like the simplicity of the drawing of the cranes (and chicks). I also like the way water is drawn; it is easily used as a Zentangle pattern.

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Mars, Gerhardt C. (editor). Brickwork of Italy: a brief review from ancient to modern times. Chicago: American Face Brick Association. 1925. Available from Internet Archive here. Somehow the mellow color of brick and the architecture in the illustrations in this book were very appealing.

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Merian, Maria Sibylla. Metamorphosis insectorum surinamensium. Amsterdam: 1705. Available on Internet Archive here. An early book about butterflies…and their caterpillars. Merian was a leading entomologist in the early 1700s…and was one of the first to publish color images of insects…particularly documenting metamorphosis of butterflies.

3 Free eBooks – March 2018

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So many books…so little time. I’m still working my way through the Japanese Illustrated Books from the Edo and Meiji Period. My favorite this month was a series with three volumes:

Kacho shasin zui. Published by Nishimura Soshichi, 1805. Available from Smithsonian Libraries here. I like the images of the birds and flowers as art and snapshots of nature through the lens of Japanese culture of the time. The scans appear a little smudged but that adds to their charm – there were books that were enjoyed again and again!

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The other books I’m highlighting this month were both written about the same time – the 1920s – and about scenic highways along rivers. The first one is from the west coast…the second is from the east coast. Both highways still exist…although is renovated/modified form. These books were probably produced as souvenirs with annotated pictures.

Oregon’s famous Columbia River Highway. Published by Lipschuetz and Katz, Portland Oregon. 1920. Available from Internet Archive here. Scenic routes have been popular since the beginning of the age of automobiles! Even with the lower speeds of those early cars, there were still turnouts – places to stop to see the river or walk a little way to see waterfalls.

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Storm King Highway and the Historic Hudson River. Published by J. Ruben, Newburgh, New York. Available from Internet Archive here. A lot has happened along the Hudson River in the last century and not all for the better. I found the highway on Google Maps and the first ‘street view’ was one with graffiti (not the artistic kind) all over the rock wall and rocks beyond. I didn’t look further. It’s depressing to see something that was once scenic turned into a prime example of ‘tragedy of the commons.’

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3 Free eBooks – February 2018

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I’m saving the wonderful botanical print books I viewed in February for a post on botanical prints…so the three books featured today are from the rest of my online reading in February.

Mochizuki, Gyokusen. Gyokusen shūgajō. Tonaka Jihe, Kyoto-shi, Meiji 24. 1891. Available from the Smithsonian Libraries site here.  I liked the soft colors and the depictions of familiar things. The dragonfly on grassy stems was my favorite.

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Mori, Yuzan. Hamonshu. Yamada Geisodo, Kyoto-shi, Meiji 36. 1903. Three volumes are available from the Smithsonian Libraries site here. These books are all about depicting water. I got a lot of ideas for Zentangle patterns from these volumes

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.Ladies Realm – an illustrated monthly magazine. Published by Hutchinson and Co. London. The volumes from the late 1800s to 1913 are available on Hathi Trust here.  This period was one of transition. There was a lot of change in fashion and technology and what women were reading. At first there were a lot of pictures of the royal family and other aristocrats….and lots of pages devoted to fashion from Paris. As time when on, there was more fiction, more ‘how to’ articles, and by the 25th volume (1908-1909) an article showing pictures of London at night.

3 Free eBooks – December 2017

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This month I picked books with an Asian theme:

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Bing, Siegfried. Artistic Japan: illustrations and essays. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co. Six volumes available from the Internet Archive here; published in the late 1800s. Most of the illustrations are in color…and represent a broad range of Japanese art from the time. I picked an image of a textile but there is a lot of other types of art in these volumes.

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Ando, Hiroshige. Ehon Edo miyage. Kikuya Kozaburo han. 1850 or after and before 1868. Six volumes available from Smithsonian Libraries here. Images in soft colors depicting Japan in the mid 1800s. I picked one from the fourth volume that looked like a road lined with cherry trees blooming in the spring. There were some other images of landscapes with snow that I liked almost as well.

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Oriental Textile Samples. 1700. Available from the Internet Archive here. This book is a reminder of how rich the textile tradition is – particularly from China. I clipped a part of the cover – which must have also been textile. There is a note that the book is ‘fabric samples mounted in accordion-style, silk covered, volumes in brown cloth-covered folios’.

3 Free eBooks – October 2017

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I am always thrilled to find a new source of eBooks. This month it was the Smithsonian making 1,000 illustrated Japanese Texts available online. I’ve just started making my way through. Here are three eBooks I’ve enjoyed so far.

Kono, Bairei. Bairei gafu. Yamada Unsodo, Kyoto, Meiji 38 [1905]. Three volumes available from Smithsonian Libraries here. Birds!

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Utagawa, Sadahide. Bansho shashin zafu. Sonoharaya Shosuke, Toto, Bunkyu 4 [1864]. Available from Smithsonian Libraries here. Nature and art…a great combo.

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Kobayashi, Bunshici. Bansho zukan. Kobayashi Bunshici, Tokyo, Meiji 34 [1901]. Two volumes available from Smithsonian Libraries here. More plants and animals...the bamboo images would make an elegant wallpaper.