Tree Branches Statue

Vegetable Ship - 5

Vegetable Ship - 4

Vegetable Ship - 3

Vegetable Ship - 2

Vegetable Ship - 1

Japanese Wedding Gown

Japanese Kimono

Kimono

The kimono (着物, kimono?)[1] is the national costume of Japan. Originally the word "kimono" literally meant "thing to wear" (ki "wearing" and mono "thing")[2] but now has come to denote a particular type of traditional full-length Japanese garment. The standard plural of the word kimono in English is kimonos[1], but the unmarked Japanese plural kimono is also sometimes found.

Kimonos are T-shaped, straight-lined robes that fall to the ankle, with collars and wide, full-length sleeves. Kimonos are wrapped around the body, always with the left side over the right (except when dressing the dead for burial)[3] and secured by a wide belt called an obi, which is usually tied at the back. Kimonos are generally worn with traditional footwear (especially zōri or geta) and split-toe socks (tabi).[4]

Today, kimonos are most often worn by women, and on special occasions. Traditionally, unmarried women wore a style of kimono called furisode,[4] which have floor-length sleeves, on special occasions. A few older women and even fewer men still wear the kimono on a daily basis. Men wear the kimono most often at weddings, tea ceremonies, and other very special or very formal occasions. Professional sumo wrestlers are often seen in the kimono because they are required to wear traditional Japanese dress whenever appearing in public.[5] They commonly wear the kind of casual Japanese attire that is referred to as yukata, which is of plain unlined cotton.

(source: Wikipedia)

Dancing Picture

Praying & Making A Wish

When is your last time making a wish? Under a shooting star?

Tokyo Tower 50th Anniversary

Lights - Continued

Annette Messager: The Messengers

“Annette Messager: The Messengers” is the first comprehensive solo exhibitionin Japan by one of France's leading artists. Annette Messager uses a wide rangeof materials to create objects and installations that draw viewers into strange andfantastical worlds. In some ways, her works are incarnations of her family name –messengers on a mission to communicate something directly to the depths ofthe human mind.

Messager uses many different media and materials, including painting, photography,found objects, words, stuffed toys, fabric, and knitting. From these she createsartwork that convey from an everyday perspective the conflicting sensationsthat lie deep inside us, such as the sacred and the profane, humor and fear, loveand sadness, exterior and interior. While the use of materials such as these havebecome common in contemporary art since the mid-1990s, Messager has beenusing them since the 1970s, in works deliberately seeking to draw out narratives found in the individual. Recently, she has produced enormous installations with mechanisms inspired by the complexity of human beings and their puzzling abilityto nurture conflicting elements within themselves. These works have been critically acclaimed, and in 2005, Messager won the Golden Lion for her exhibition at theFrench pavilion at the Venice Biennale – an honor that brought her much media attention as well. Much of Messager's work is on a large scale and is visually stimulating, and appeals strongly to a wide demographic, not just to the youngerg enerations.

Reflection

Crystall Ball with Fish inside