Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1873-10-22
Japanese Fans.

Many of these fan-pictures are illus
irations of Irrational classics, fairy tales
and historic legends. On this neutral
tinted reverse, for instance, curved
limo dashed across the disk is slack.
rope; on it is nondescript dancing,
and below half.kneeling figure rep.
rescnts the iuggler or Snowman. lie
is gcsticulating wildly with his fan,
his mouth Is wide open with well.simu-
lated nstonsment at the antics of the
creature on the slack.rope. This per-
former is like u badger; yet il resem-
bles a tea-kettle. Its body is the ket,
tie; one cnnningly curved paw is the
spout; another, which swings the in
evitable umbrella, is the handle and
the tail and hind legs form the tripod
on which tho kettle sits. The story
Of the Accomplished Tea-kettle is very
old, and numberless versions of il form
q staple dramatic, poetic or artistic
diversion of the Japanese. Briefly, it
is related that a company of priests,
who dwelt by themselves in q temple,
were aff'righted by their tea-kettle
suddenly becoming covered with fur
and walking about the room. 1t both
cred them very much by its pranks,
being part of the time q useful and So
ber culinary utensil and partly mis-
chievous badger. Catching it and
shutting it up in box, they sold IL to
a travelling tinker for trihe, think
ing themselves well rid of it. But the
tinker, though sorely affrighted when
he found what bargain he had got
ten, shrewdly put his bewitched tea
kettle TO good account. He Travelled
far and wide exhibiting his wonderful
beast, which diligently performed on
the slaok-rope. Princes and mobiles
came in throngs to see his show; and
so he made himself very rich by his
unique entertainment. The lucky
tinker and his accomplished tea kettle
furnish forth adventures for the Japa-
nese play-goer as numerous and vari-
Gus as those of our own Humpty Dunn
PITY, dear to the heart of every English
speaking child. On the reverse Of
another fan you discover an ilIustra.
tion of fairy lore. A hare and badger,
grotesquely dressed in watermen's
garb, are each padding about in boats
on small sheet of water. They
glare at each other defantly, but the
hare, Notwithstanding he keeps his
simple expression, seems to have the
advantage of tho other. The hare
and the badger in the story of The
Cracking Mountain, were old foes, and
had many a tussle, in which the hare
usually got the better OF his adversary.
Finally the hare, having built wood. |
en- boat, set off on q voyage to the
capital of the moon, inviting his enemy
to accompany him. The wary badger |
refused, but building a boat of clay, |
he followed the hare The waves |
washed the clay SO that it began to |
dissolve; then the hare, padding bis |
craft full upon tho luckless badger,
crushed his sinking boat, and the |
wicked animal perished mserably in
the waters. In these ianciful pictorial
eonceits the japanese greatly excel.
Hoksai, a japanese artist, says an in
telligent writer on Asatic art, has
modestly protested thatitis more easy
to draw thing one has never seen
than to represent objects with which
everybody is familiar. But these fan.
tastic creations of the imagination
are all so carefully and characteristi-
cally limned that they deceive by their
realism. You think that these odd
creatures must have been studied from
life. You pay an unconscious tribute
to tho artists wise interpretation of
nature; for his fundamental idea is
natural.-ScribnerS Monthly.