Thursday Thirteen - Year of the Rabbit

We're well into the New Year but I'd like to share these vintage Asian postcards celebrating past years of the rabbit. It amazes me how many ways artists through the decades have portrayed the creatures.

Thursday Thirteen ~ Japanese Mecha Art by Naochika Morishita

I'll mostly let these speak for themselves. My favorites are the last two winged robots. I'm grateful to Pink Tentacle for another great collection of images. Be sure to click for an enlargement.

1. Jaburo

2. Mobile Suit-2

3. Dom - I like the lighting and the name.

4. Jaburo-2

5. Daijyushin - robots and dinosaurs?  Cool!

6. GM Custom

7. Gundam vs. Elmeth

8. GM Cold District Type

9. Cockpit - great POV if you ask me...

10. RX-93 Nu Gundam

11. Scopedog and Berserga

12. MagiDragon

13. Wing Gundam Zero Custom

Thursday Thirteen - Trademarked Japanese Characters

I found these images courtesy of the fun website Pink Tentacle. Though I don't know what companies commissioned them or why, they're just fun. You can find the whole collection of 99 trademarked characters here:

Pink Tentacle

And without further ado, number 1. A ghost with a flying saucer for a hat?

2. There's nothing like a smart, talented guy:

3. Not the helpless Humpty Dumpty, this egg is dressed for success.

4. A dentist with a cherry for a head?  I got nothin'.

5. This reminds me of a joke:

What do you do with an elephant with three balls?

You walk him and pitch to the rhino.

6. A message about monkeys using underarm deodorant, apparently.

7. Awww...

8. Anda gain...

9. Toilet paper man to the rescue!  I think we could all use one of these whenever the bathroom runs out of the stuff in the middle of taking care of business.

10. Who exactly started the pink = girl and blue = boy?  The fact that's all I can say should tell you something.

11. Definitely a message reinforced by cuteness...

12. Potato and carrots make me think of stew.  Then again, the potato man reminds me of my chubby cat.  I'm so conflicted!

13. Water never looked so adorable, even if it does have a weird leaf attachment.

Thursday Thirteen - Illustrations by Gōjin Ishihara

The following images are from a book illustrated in 1972. I thank the folks at Pink Tentacle, where you can find more images here:

Macabre Kids Book Art by Gōjin Ishihara

1.

Yamasei, the mountain sprite, just looks like a disagreeable fellow if you ask me

2.

The kappa are river imps
Their behavior goes beyond what I ever would expect from the name

3.

Yūrei are simply ghosts
This depiction is both beautiful and scary

4.

Jorōgumo “whore spider" I own a wonderful rendition by a gifted American artist
Matthew Meyer is currently living in Japan

5.

Kubire-oni is a strangler demon new to me

6.

Kyūbi no kitsune is the nine-tailed fox
I'm not certain of the significance of the woman's face
Nine (kyū) tails is the limit, showing great age and wisdom

7.

Rashōmon no oni is an ogre at the Rashōmon gate
The detachable arm is just creepy

8.

Rokurokubi, the long-necked woman
I've run into her ilk in other renditions of eerie folklore

9.

Onmoraki is a bird demon adapted from Chinese folklore

10.

Nekomata is a cat monster
The neko (cat) being a housept of mine,
I'm rather alarmed that this one went for the jugular

11.

Waira, the mountain-dwelling chimera, gives me another reason to stick to flatlands in Japan

12.

Baku is the dream-eating chimera
This notion scares me more than anything else

13.

Tenjō-sagari dwells in the ceiling, which is pretty obvious here
I feel sorry for the sleeping young man and at the same time,
it's such an eerily sensual scene I can't look away