Sorry-ology

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros I came to know the title of the book a long time ago when I was doing master degree. Around the same time, as I vaguely remember, Amelie , a french film that features a imaginative girl who alters the world for everyone including herself, was a big hit. The title of the book also engenders the same colorful imagination in me. Mango street. What is a street like if it is called mango? Is it always as sunny as its orange and red color suggests? Is it as fragrant as the delicious flavor of the fruit? Is it as colorful as the tropical scenery in which mango fruits are grown? I didn't get to read the book until last weekend, despite that it had already greatly excited my brain in the early years. The narrative style is typically feminine, and I doubt if male readers would have appreciated it as much as me. When I shared some passages with K, his viewpoint sometimes appears to be very destructive to the image that the writing has created in my...

Sharaku in Tokyo National Museum We went to an exhibition on Toshusai Sharaku in Tokyo National Museum today. The wood prints of kabuki actors in the Edo period Japan are among the most definitive icons of Japanese culture for foreigners. Sharaku is most known for his half-length portrait of actor Otani Oniji 3rd (the image on the top). The almost satirical caricature of the actor in action is fascinating. The color and the contours that give form to the dramatic moment are engaging. I was drawn, however, to one of a relatively small collection of the portraits that he drew for his contemporary sumo wrestlers. Daitouzan (the image below) was a popular child wrestler in his time. When he became a professional wrestler, he was only 6 or 7 weighing about 70 kilograms. Though appearing childish in many ways, he was depicted powerful when confronted with his human or ghostly opponents. In spite of his over sized body for his young age, his face is still characterized ...