Print Specifics:
- Type of print: Lithograph - Original French antique print
- Publisher: Librairie de Firmin Didot, Paris, Rue Jacob 56, 1885-1887.
- Condition: 1 (1. Excellent - 2. Very good - 3. Good - 4. Fair)
- Dimensions: 11 x 15.5 inches (28 x 40 cm), including blank margins (borders) around the image.
- Paper weight: 2 (1. Thick - 2. Heavier - 3. Medium heavy - 4. Slightly heavier - 5. Thin)
- Reverse side: Blank
- Notes:
1.
Green color 'border' around the print in the photo is a contrasting
background
on which the print was photographed. 2. Detail of the print is sharper
than the photo of the print. 3. The hard copy of the legend key is NOT
included.
Legend to the illustrations:
- Among
the motifs assembled here, some are merely abstract speculations, such
as meanders, interlaces, striations, and so on. We do not know whether
these patterns bear a symbolic meaning, or whether by combining these
symmetrical, continuous designs, the Japanese artisans intend to refer
to Him whom Plato names the "eternal geometer". Moreover, it would be
inappropriate for us to seek out the subtle meaning of Japanese
symbols, our knowledge being very incomplete on the matter.
Nevertheless, we may at least indicate that the pretty fragment n° 19,
with its fluttering butterflies, appears to come from a ceremonial
bridal gown. The symbolic nature of this piece is explained in M. Aime
Hubert's account of his journey to Japan. "During the wedding ceremony,
the young bride moves forward escorted by two bridesmaids, whose role
is to flutter from one group to the other, and to do the honours of the
table. They are called the male and female butterflies. It is required
that in the cut and in the embroideries of their gowns, made of crepe
and gauze, they wear the image of that charming couple which nature,
according to popular belief, has used as the symbol of conjugal
felicity." The crane is one of the most frequently encountered images
in Japanese ornament. It is a symbol which appears to have manifold
meanings, and is always used in the wedding ceremony. In our albums we
encounter a crane in the shape of a disc, in the style shown in example
n° 2, but merely gilded, on the norimon of a bride, and the partitions
of the bridal chamber are adorned with images of cranes in pairs. Our
second example shows a combination of three fine cranes enclosed within
a hexagon and composing an ingenious decoration suitable in nature to a
mosaic.
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