Hasui Kawase (1883-1957) was a prominent landscape artist in 20th century Japan who travelled extensively throughout the Western regions of the country. Known for his poetic renderings of snow, rains and moonlight, he created elegant prints of Kyoto temples covered in snow, as well as dark and quiet landscapes.
“Yasugi Kiyomizu in Izumo” (1926)
“Characterized by their serenity of mood and flawless composition, Hasui’s woodblock prints welcome the viewer into a more “idyllic” time,” says the Ronin Gallery in New York, which is currently showing Hasui’s prints in a collection titled “Quiet Elegance.”
Here, we’ve selected some of our favorite wintry scenes, just because it’s December. And while it’s not part of the collection, we’ve added one of our favorites from Hasui titled “Tokyo (Santa in the Snow)” created in 1950. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Spoon & Tamago!
“Tokyo (Santa in the Snow)” (1950)
“Fine Day After Snow at Asakusa Kannon Temple” (1926)
2016 marked our 3rd year of operating the Spoon & Tamago shop and it finally feels like we’re getting the hang of things. Running an online shop, and doing everything in-house, poses several challenges, as we’ve discovered. But it enables us to reach out and form relationships with our favorite artists, makers and designers and be the bridge between them and the world. That gives us so much joy and is what keeps us going. With that said, here are the top 5 products we carry that our customers loved the most.
Our original blog post about illustrator Shinji Tsuchimochi’s 3-year project made it into our top 10 blog posts for the year. And the completed project, which was turned into a lovely book, was our most popular product for the year. We were honored to be able to work with Tsuchimochi and the fantastic folks at Shikaku Publishing to be the international distributor for this beautiful compilation of drawings of our favorite city.
The Papa’s Maze is what originally kick-started our little shop 3 years ago, and it continues to be one of our most popular products. Created by Kazuo Nomura over 30 years ago, the hand-drawn maze was unearthed by his daughter when she was going through the attic. Later, at his daughter’s request, Nomura created another version of his intricate maze which is also equally popular.
Created by one of our favorite designers Norihiko Terayama, the Awaglass is a mesmerizing hourglass that replaces sand with bubbles. But don’t try and measure time. Its purpose is actually the opposite: to obscure and help you forget about time. Unlike uniformly shaped sand, large bubbles and small bubbles pass upwards at different speeds. You’ll get lost in this piece’s simple, poetic beauty.
Technology is increasingly replacing the need for hand-written letters. And it’s also making the tiny stars in the sky harder to see as cities get brighter. But maybe that’s why our Starry Sky Envelopes are so popular. There’s still a way to light up the night sky, and show someone you care, all with one poetic envelope.
Coming in 5th is another old-timer, the floating ripple vase designed by our friend Taku Omura. Cast from plastic resin, the ripple-shaped dish holds just a single flower and can be floated in almost any dish. The conventional flower display is a stationary one – grounded by a heavy vase or bottle. But the ripple vase changes this, allowing for a much more natural display of flowers. It’s as if the flower was blown into a small pond by the wind.
Content originally published and Shared from http://perfectbath.com
After a stressful day of our daily routine, all we want is just a little relaxation to soothe all our worries away. Going to the spa on a daily basis might not be feasible due to time and money constraints, so why not just invest on turning your own bathroom into a spa-like retreat? Check out these ideas below:
Consider All Your Senses
Start with neutralizing the things that might stress you out first. Loud noises from construction down the street or neighbors? Include white noise or soothing music to cover up sounds you don’t want. Hate the overhead light in your windowless bathroom? Bring in candles. Source:ApartmentTherapy
Arrange Artfully
Consider your counter: Are your beauty and hygiene supplies just strewn about randomly? If so, adding a few small trays can mean the difference between a mess and an artful arrangement. And don’t write off apothecary jars just because they’re a cliche — they’re a beautiful way to display the small but necessary items that often come in gaudy packaging (cotton balls, q-tips). Source:ElleDecor
Reflect Nature with Materials
Natural textures like wood and stone breathe life into a bathroom. A pebbled tile floor feels amazing underfoot. If a new floor is not in your budget anytime soon, treat yourself to a pebble bath mat. Source:Houzz
Just Add Flora
A simple potted plant or two can change the whole mood of a bathroom. Look for something that’s OK with moisture and low light, like an orchid or a begonia. Source:BirchBox
Steam Saunas and Showers
Warm, moist air has soothing qualities. But forget the crowded gym sauna or steam room. Install one at home for privacy and convenience. Special pre-fabricated steam shower units trap billowing steam and set your stress free. Source:WebMD
If you’re in need of sophisticated bathroom products that will complement your spa theme, contact us and we’ll help you find the perfect one!
As the year of the monkey comes to an end, and we prepare to welcome in the year of the hen, it’s time to reflect on 2016, and take a look at what stroke a chord most with our audience. The top 10 list this year is a diverse mix of subjects that range from geography and horticulture to traditional craft, music and photography. I’m proud of each and every one of these articles, but I can also say that I’m proud of all the articles we chose not to write. “Fake news” was on the mind of many media publishers this year, and understandably so.
But we stand by each and every article that we’ve published and I hope readers can take comfort in knowing that our stories, even though they’re about relatively lighter topics, are vetted for accuracy and truthfulness.
2017 will mark our 10-year anniversary of blogging! To us, that’s pretty incredible. And we couldn’t have done it without our readers so I wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you for stopping by and spending time reading. Look out for some fun projects next year to celebrate our 10th blogiversary!
Our most popular post this year was a latecomer – published in October – that quickly catapulted to the top. This map, created by Hajime Narukawa, may very well be the most accurate ever. Narukawa has spent years improving on the conventional map, which has largely not changed since 1569. Read about what’s different with Narukawa’s projection, and why it’s ever-so relevant today.
Hoshinchu, a Kyushu-based workshop, captured our fascination when they added a fun, poetic twist on indoor gardening. By utilizing the opposing forces of magnetic energy they created a levitating plant called Air Bonsai. Since then, we’ve seen countless imitation products and variations but we’ll always remember this small design studio as the original plant levitators.
What happens when you take Tokyo’s vibrant, rich and sometimes overstimulating skin and apply it to other cities? That was the question that led Japanese architect Daigo Ishii to embark on his Worldwide Tokyo-lization Project.” The fascinating project takes elements of Tokyo and applies them to 6 global cities: New York, Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, Paris, La Paz and Venice.
Japanese wood joinery dates back to the seventh century and is a craftsmanship technique that involves complicated, interlocking wooden joints that form bonds without the use of nails, screws or adhesives. A young Japanese man, fascinated by the techniques and aiming to preserve the dying art, began illustrating them and posting them to a dedicated twitter account.
Hit songs sometimes take years to craft. But for comedian Piko Taro, all it took was an apple and a pineapple. Oh, and a pen. The utterly simple yet infectiously addictive song and dance became a viral hit that made Piko Taro famous practically overnight. Our article too, in which we reported on Pico Taro’s true identity, was one of the first and for a while was the top hit on google search, which helped secure its place at number 5 on our list. Thanks Google!
Masayuki Oki is a master at catching the stray cats of Tokyo making funny faces, napping and even sometimes fighting. But whatever they’re doing when Oki snaps his shutter each is imbued with character and personality that is instantly relatable. His portraits of Tokyo’s stray cats are number 6 on our list.
The Kouraku Kiln was founded in 1865 and has been producing ceramics for the past 150 years. Over that time the facility accumulated a vast collection of pottery that has, for one reason or another, gone unsold. So the warehouse decided to offer visitors a unique treasure-hunting experience to try and get rid of some of their stock. For just 5000 yen, visitors could rummage through their vast warehouse and take home whatever they found! We later heard from the kiln that swarms of visitors had come thanks to our article which, in our mind, is one of the greatest compliments.
In addition to being an architect, Tomoyuki Tanaka is also a master draftsman. And his painstakingly-produced, hand-drawn cross sections of major train stations in Tokyo are a work of beauty. If you’ve ever visited Tokyo, Shibuya or Shinjuku Station, you’ll appreciate these sketches.
Following in the footsteps of ukiyo-e artist Hiroshige, Shinji Tsuchimochi spent 3 years illustrating 100 views of Tokyo. Each view is a unique work of art, inspired by ukiyo-e but produced with a modern sense of whimsy and, sometimes, surrealism. After our initial article on him, we reached out, offering to carry his book in our shop of he ever decided to make one. Less than 6 months later the book was stocked in our shop, and it became our best-selling product of the year.
Fumihito Taguchi, a record shop owner in Tokyo, took an avid interest in the unique, portable record players that were mass-produced in Japan in the 60s and 70s. His collection of over 100 different varieties was the 10th most popular post on spoon & tamago during 2016.
Thanks again for reading and Happy Holidays to all!
For this weeks fitness tip I want to talk about how to avoid the holiday hangover, but I’m not referring to the hangover from wine and eggnog. We all know the holidays are tough because it tempts us with cookies, pies, and grandma’s best secret recipes. After all the family parties and holiday cooking you […]
BowlersMart opened their first store in 2004 in Hudson Florida as Cliff Barnes' Pro Shop. Our goals were simple:
1) Offer the best customer service at the lowest possible prices.
2) Have a wide variety of inventory readily available for same day service.
3) Have clean, bright well merchandised stores.
4) Help our customers enjoy the sport as much as possible so they can reach their goals.
5) Help grow the game of bowling by repeating steps 1 through 4.
Since 2004 we have grown to be one of the largest retailers in the country with 31 stores and counting and now offer the website with the same values as our stores.
Our low no haggle price in store is the same as our website so you can be assured you are getting the best possible prices and service.
from BowlersMart.com Bowling Blog http://ift.tt/2hXsjxw
