River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1873-09-30
japanese Fans.


Many of these fan pictures are illus
trations of national classics. fairy tales
and historic legends. On this neutral.
tinted reverse, for instance, curved
line dashed across the disc is slack
rope; on 1t is nondescrIpt dancing,
and below n half kneeling figure repre-.
sents the juggler or Snowman. He is
gesticulating wildly with his fan, and
his mouth is wide open with well-simu-
lated establishment at the antics of the
creature on the slack-rcpe. This per-
former is like badger; yet it resem.
bles tea-kettle. Its body is the ket.
tie; one cunningly curved paw is the
spout; another, which swings the in.
evitable umbrella, is tho handle; and
the tail and hind legs form the tripod
on which the kettle sits. The story of
The Accomplished Tea-kettle is very
old, and numberless versions of IL
form staple dramatic, poetic
or artistic diversion of the japanese.
Briefly, il is related that a COM
pany of priests, who dwelt by them
selves i'm temple, were affrighted by
their tea-kettle suddenly becoming
covered with iurand walking about the
room. Ii bothered them very much
by its pranks, being part of the time
a useful and sober culinary utensil and
partly mischievous badger. Catching
it and shutting it up in box, they
sold it to travelling tinker for u trifie,
thinking themselves well rid of it. But
the tinker, though sorely affrighted
when he found what bargain he had
gotten, shrewdly put his bewitched
tea-kettle to good account. He trav.
eled far and wide exhibiting his Won
derful beast, which diligently perform
ed en- the slack-rope. Princes and no
bles came in throngs to see his show /;
and so he made himself very rich Ivy his
unique entertainment. The lucky tinker
and his accomplished tea kettle furnish
forth adventures for the Japanese play
goer, as numerous and various as those
of our own Humpty Dumpty, dear to
the heart of every English-speaking
child, On the reverse of another fan
you discover an illustration of fairy
lore. A hare aud badger, grotesquely
dressed in watermen's garb, are each
padding about in boats ON a small
sheet of water. They glare at each
other de6antly, but the hare, notwith.
standing he keeps his simple express
sion, seems to have the advantage of
the other. The hare and the badger. in
the story of The Cracking Mountain,
were old foes, and had many tussle,
in which the hare usually got the bet
ter of his adversary. Finally the hare,
having built wooden boat, set off on
voyage to the capital of the moon, in
viting his enemy to go with him. The
wary badger refused, but building
boat of clay, he followed the hare
The waves washed the clay so that il
dligan to dissolve then the hare, pad
beng his craft full upon The luckless
badger, crushed his sinking boat, and
the wicked animal persisted miserably
in the waters. In these fanciful pic
torial conceits the Japanese greatly
excel Hoksai, Japanese artist, says
an intelligent writer on Asiatic art, has
modestly protested that it is more easy
to draw things one has never seen than
TO represent objects with which every
body is familiar. But these fantastic
creations of the imagination are all so
carefully ard characteristically limned
that they deceive by their realism. You
think that these odd creatures must
have been studied from life. You pay
an unconscious tribute 10 the artists
wise Interpretation of nature for his
fundamental idea is natural. Serb
&er's