VERSION 39 was made with illustrations from the
Amorous Dancing EMBU artbook, by Tomomi Kobayashi. The original images (
first,
second,
third) were in black and white; I blended two together and then decided to fill an empty space with one more. I colored each of them by hand, and added some
patterns as well. Those can be found at
Hybrid Genesis. The orchid image incorporated into the layout was found through Google, at
this site.
The geisha of Japan are living examples of culture and history. For those of you who know about geisha only through Memoirs of a Geisha (book or film), you are missing out on a lot of good stuff. It's rather ignorant to believe that geisha are prostitutes. They are entertainers, whose lives are steeped in ceremony and tradition. They are a symbol of Japan itself. Inspirations for this layout included the book Geisha, by Liza Dalby, who was the first American geisha; the poetry of Ono no Komachi and the Ise Monogatari (Tales of Monogatari); and the poem A Geisha Song", by Nora Chesson:
Than the foam of the sea we are lighter;
No souls have we
To lose, or to wane, or grow brighter
(Thus say the women that hear us, the men that see).
We laugh, though our way be wending,
Plain to all sight
Deathwards—away from delight;
We laugh, though our world be ending
This very night.
A Geisha Song - Nora Chesson (1906)
Tears that but form gems on sleeves
Must come, I think,
From an insincere heart,
For mine, though I seek to repress them,
Gush forth in torrents.
From Kokinshû - Ono no Komachi (900 CE)
