Lovely Things I Own – The Japanese Prints

While I own many ugly, but interesting, objects I also own several objects that are just beautiful to look at. While I've been compiling lists, I've discovered something interesting. Most the really ugly things, I bought myself or my father got for me. Almost all the truly beautiful things, other people gave to me. Or gave to Syd and I, whatever.

Today we'll look at a nice plair of Japanese Woodblock Prints.



The first is Carp and Tortoise by, Hiroshi Yoshida.


The second is called Urayasu and is by his son, Tōshi Yoshida.

Now the story. As I understand it, these were acquired during a trip to Japan. The person who got them, wasn’t one of us, we’ve never been to Japan. Someone went to Japan, bought these for themselves, and they have ended up in our hands. That’s the story and Syd and I are sticking to it. That person, if I remember right, is now dead and can’t complain about where their prints have ended up.

The person is Syd’s mother’s husband’s mother’s traveling companion’s second-cousin’s former roommate. At some point, Syd’s mother and her husband got hold of them and when they moved, they decided they didn’t want them anymore. So they were packed up in a box along with some bowls we still use, a tea set we don’t use and another bowl we can’t use because it has lead in its glaze. At least, I think we still have that bowl. Tell you what, if I find it I’ll photograph it It’ll go in the Ugly Things pile because it’s fairly unattractive.

These however, are quite nice. There is a fair amount of detail, and the colors are very nice, they are just a nice pair of pretty pictures to go over our couch and no one else I know has anything like them. And that is very much the point.

I really don’t like modern design standards because everyone’s place looks so damn samey that it makes me want to jump off a cliff. The same couches, the same beds, the same tables, the desks, the same Dr Who figures on those desks, holding the same sonic screwdriver accessories, and on and on and on. Not that I have a problem with Dr. Who toys, or toys on desks in general, but I get very depressed when I meet someone and inside five minutes find myself thinking “I bet you’ve got a little plastic David Tennant on your desk” and then to find that not only was I right, but it was the exact one I was thinking of, which is the one with Rose and Cassandra. What I’m most disappointed about there is to find this person is a Rose fan.


No, really I’m disappointed to find so many people chasing trends. It’s not even the trend that bugs me in most cases, but ubiquity. When minimalism was a thing only a few people did, I found it interesting and kind of cool. Now, I can barely stand to be around anything minimalist. When it the style was New Colonial, I couldn’t stand that. I still don’t like it much, it smacks too much of how my mother decorates. The point however, is not the style itself, but the ubiquity that drives me nuts. If everyone started decorating their homes with incredibly disparate types of objects, from a wall collage to a Jackalope head, and whatever this thing actually is... I would probably be very displeased. Of course, most people would argue that they take the collage approach to life in one form or another, but even then I see the same art in people’s houses over and over again. The same toys and t-shirts turn up time after time, the same posters, even the couches have a depressing regularity in how they’re laid out.

What I’m asking of people is that you change it up a bit from time to time, or at least behave in a way that’s slightly irregular once in a while. Actually, what I was asking was for you to look a these two prints we own, but that seems less important now.