Apollo Arrow

Edo Period Scroll

This piece was for the amazing Mike Bannon, who I feel very fortunate to have as my supervising marshal.

This design is based off of a woodcut from the Edo period. Although this particular cut was made in the 17th century, the Edo period itself spanned from 1603 until 1867. There was very little change stylistically during this time frame, which would mean that the imagery in this piece would still be appropriate for earlier periods.

Materials used in construction was Bristol paper, heavy weight. I used shell gold, egg tempera paint made of NY egg yolks and pigment with a touch of honey, windsor & newton inks, India ink and watercolor.



Colors selected for the clothing is more vibrant than in period for this region. Decision for the clothing was based off of garb that the recipient couple was wearing in the reference image. Period ink used in Edo-era print making would have been water-soluble. In a study by Villafana & Edwards (2019), the “inorganic colorants commonly found in Edo-period nishiki-e were Prussian blue, red ochre, vermilion, red lead, yellow ochre, orpiment, as well as organic indigo, gamboge, turmeric, and lac. Dayflower was extracted from the traditional dye-infused paper.” Replication of period colors was done to the best of my efforts using the materials and techniques I had available to match the extant piece in period. The materials used in traditional Japanese woodblock printing ink colorants are sensitive to environmental changes, and prone to degradation. This issue has raised several preservation concerns, which include sensitivity to environmental conditions such as light, pollutants, and high humidity, as well as sensitivity to some conservation treatment conditions, such as pH, water, and other solvents.

The text was commissioned from the amazing Cindy Watkins, who is both an incredibly talented apprentice and fencer. The text is a renga, which is (連歌, linked verse) is a genre of Japanese collaborative poetry in which alternating stanzas, or ku (句), of 5-7-5 and 7-7 mora (sound units, not to be confused with syllables) per line are linked in succession by multiple poets.

The text beside the cloud on top on the right hand side says “Apollo’s arrow.” The text on the left margin says “east kingdom” or “kingdom of the east.”

References

Department of Asian Art. “Woodblock Prints in the Ukiyo-e Style.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ukiy/hd_ukiy.htm (October 2003)

Villafana, T. & Edwards, G. (2019). Creation and reference characterization of Edo period Japanese woodblock printing ink colorant samples using multimodal imaging and reflectance spectroscopy. Heritage Science, 7(94). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40494-019-0330-6

Renga for an Edo Haiga Scroll by Cindy Watkins

The Japanese translation was commissioned from Hector Baez

It is known to all

There is one who bends his strength

In peaceful service


Steady hands have made

A flight to blanket the sky

Paper crane snowfall


Trees stand adamant

But for a man of great skill

The catalpa bows


Arrows must be straight

But truer than the arrows

Must be the archer


In a time of war

He stands not in the ranks

Look to the forefront


A golden light blooms

Among Warring Daffodils

Apollo’s Arrow


On April 30

Of this fifty sixth year of

Our Society


High flies his name

Ciaran Ua Mac Theire

For his archer’s skill


Bold Rouyoukojin

Deems it so, the Demon King

of the Three Heavens


Rani Indrakshi

If all East bends to please her

So this must be done 

In Progress Art

I must admit, I didn't take too many in-progress photographs for this piece as I should have.  This scroll pre-dates my website, and was still one of the pieces I was posting on Facebook.


Lessons Learned...