Curious as to who all these demonic looking fellows were I quizzed a Japanese friend, only to find out they're supposed to be portraits of ten Ainu (Hokkaido natives) who helped out the original Japanese settlers in Matsumae, presumably before the Japanese torched all their villages and slaughtered the inhabitants.Not only are they depicted as being half animal, with hairy clawed feet and inhuman strength, but they had really scary names like 起殺麻 (Ki-sa-ma: rise/kill/hemp) which coincidentally also happens to be a synonym for an insult in modern Japanese.
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1 comment:
I thought those paintings were rather Francis Bacon-y. Very strange. You're right about how they kind of creature-ized them, though... I hadn't thought of it.
- Felicia
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