Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2010 March 24 • Wednesday

Amazon Japan thought I'd be interested in a new CD by a band called Julie with the Wild Ones. The cover certainly got my attention.

Here's another one.

I checked them out on YouTube, though, and they're not for me. I like their look but not their music.

Something I really did like, however, is the Utagawa Kuniyoshi show that's at the Japan Society right now. It will be there until June 13. Check it out!

Here's an image gallery at the Japan Society's website.

Minamoto no Raiko and His Retainers Battle with the Earth Spider was one of my favorites. (All my favorites were triptychs.) The very small online image doesn't do it justice. Likewise with The Earth Spider Conjures Up Demons at the Mansion of Minamoto no Raiko.

A bit of searching online turned up some of my other favorites. Here's In the Ruined Palace at Soma, Masakado's Daughter Takiyasha Uses Sorcery To Gather Allies.

In other words, the guy in the middle is preparing to fight a giant skeleton monster summoned by the woman on the left.

In this vertical triptych, the guy at the bottom is a monk punishing himself for having committed murder. At the top is a Buddhist deity taking mercy on him and making the water warmer. The middle panel of the three shows nothing but water and rock. It's a brilliant composition.

This last one is called At the Bottom of the Sea in Daimotsu Bay.

The guy on the right killed himself by attaching himself to that huge anchor before it was dropped in the ocean. The anchor also "anchors" the composition by connecting the three panels. The guy on the right is now undead and hanging out on the ocean floor with his undead army. They're summoning these giant crab demons with human faces to attack their enemies on the surface. If only movies were this interesting!

Apparently you can buy high-quality replicas of some of these from Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.