Jive Boss Sweat, 2012

63" x 48"

Stenciled and commercially available cottons and cotton blends, embroidery floss. Fused and machine appliquéd, hand appliquéd, machine pieced; hand embroidered and quilted. Photo credit: D. James Dee.

It’s a pleasure and a puzzle to experience firsthand how contemporary Japanese culture is layered over the bedrock of ancient traditions. A beckoning cat--a bit of Tokyo street architecture--is shown against a manhole cover with a cherry blossom and gingko design. The cat strides through a torii gate onto the moss and stones of my favorite Zen garden. And, there’s always a vending machine nearby, offering both refreshment and amusement—Pocari Sweat, anyone?

FYI: The quote stenciled onto the squares of the torii gate is from Donald Richie's Tokyo (1999):

"One is advised to admire the famous old shrine and, since one is not Japanese, one also includes the gas station next door, the TV aerial in back and the supermarket truck in front, and is consequently disturbed. It is doubtful that a native sees all of this, because he or she is gifted with partial vision, the ability to ignore that which would encroach upon the famous shrine, the single ancient pine or the once wide vista of the sea. The West does not encourage vision this selective, but in Tokyo it is almost a necessity...Since they share this gift, most Japanese are notoriously fond of the camera. As they ought to be -- cameras approximate their own learned vision.”