キモノバッグ ~kimonobaggu

I shall not rest until I make this bag mine.



Like nodate chanoyu perfected, it's a traveling kimono tansu!

It has clear pockets for finding kitsuke items and storing essentials like zori and jime. There's also an interior hanger to keep obi and kimono from creasing while inside. 6 different patterns to choose from. Original by tsuki to kame.

Here: Rakuten

口紅 (くちべに) ~kuchibeni

[Lit. "crimson mouth", or lipstick.]

Lip Service: Photog Sues Hip L.A. Restaurant for Copyright Infringement

Usually when a photographer sues someone over copyright infringement, you end up reading about it in photo industry trade newspapers and Websites. But when National Geographic staffer Jodi Cobb sued the Geisha House restaurant in Los Angeles for using her photographs without permission, word of the legal action appeared on the Website of The Hollywood Reporter, a mainstay of the entertainment industry.
That might be because the restaurant is one of the town’s hottest nightspots. Or because one of its owners was the winner of the CBS reality TV show Big Brother. Or maybe it was because one of the investors in the restaurant is actor Ashton Kutcher.
Whatever the reason, the case should also be of interest to photographers around the country, simply because it illustrates how cavalierly the notion of copyright is treated by many people today.

Continue reading "Lip Service: Photog Sues Hip L.A. Restaurant for Copyright Infringement" from PopPhoto.com

Article from Hollywood reporter esq
Article from the Defamer
Article from reality blurred

I'm a bit disturbed by the idea that red lips on a white background could be "owned" exclusively by Jodi Cobb. The lips on the restaurant are slightly different, but Cobb calls it "virtually identical". Her proof? She had it analyzed by a National Geographic expert - the same organization she once worked for. How different are red lips on white painted skin supposed to look?

Clearly the book cover and the photo on the door are NOT the same. They are similar, but as mentioned way down in the article, the restaurant intentionally copied the theme and reproduced a similar photo (variations on a theme). The cover of A Year in Search of Wa features red lips on white skin, but with the kimono collars showing.

I can see why Cobb would be pissed (I might be a little mad too). But the restaurant didn't quite steal her photo - they recreated a similar photo. Is recreating a similar photo the same as copyright violation? That's a question of access. Well, I'm not an attorney, but it seems like the case could go either way. I mean, is an idea copyright-able? Cobb is also suing about the t-shirt the guy wore on Big Brother too. The use of her images inside the building is one matter (apparently the original cease and desist complaint is dated from 2005). The restaurant interior from the website doesn't appear to have anything immediately Cobb-esque - unless it's in the ladies room or something - so it seems as though they've complied on that front. But Cobb is asking for $150,000 per image plus damages. I'm tempted to get a copy of the filing.

Now Geiko usually seem flattered by the various artworks that people make of them. I find it odd that Cobb, who was granted a boon by the Miyagawacho geiko, couldn't work something out with a Hollywood restaurant. If I were the restaurant manager, I probably would have done the same. You could either go for the world-class photog for way too much, or go with the unknown photog for a hundred bucks. I've known lots of struggling artists who are thrilled to exhibit their works at cafes and restaurants just for the exposure. And it's pretty clear that geisha haven't officially trademarked their red lips/white skin combo (otherwise the maiko henshin studios would be in serious trouble).

Though I can't see anything immediately from the Geisha House site that obviously resembles Cobb's photos (Aside from the red lips-white face composition - Official Gallery) - maybe a visit is in order.

I'll admit that I'm approaching this situation with a photographer's mindset. I often see really well-crafted images and think "Oh, I could totally do that." I usually end up with something completely different, but sometimes it's the same.

I know Peter MacIntosh once called Cobb's book "a typical 'take what you can get from Japan and run without thinking about all the bridges you burned.'" My biggest fear is that buying these Paparazzi-esque photobooks (including Cobb) I'll only encourage more photographers to book a month-long trip to Japan with the hopes of getting published just by standing along Kyoto curbsides at dusk. It feels too much like encouraging the geisha mystique rather than the geisha livelihood. One of the biggest tests for an ethnographer (or photo journalist in this case) is if he/she can return to the community and find their relationships intact. Dalby still maintains her relationship with her geisha mother, even bringing her husband and kids to visit her old Pontocho haunts. Cobb would probably not be as welcome in Miyagawa-cho.

Some of these recently published maiko/geiko photobooks, particularly Western photographers, are no more than pictures of geisha on the street (which is pretty much legal everywhere, but also ethically questionable). Are these photos released with the approval of the geisha? Does the photog have permission? Does the maiko who pauses politely to pose give consent to have her image published for profit? Cobb says she was granted permission to shoot, otherwise she never would have gotten past the door, but were her photos published with the geisha's concent? Cobb shot back when film cameras were used, so did she ask for permission before or after the images were proccessed? Were any of these factors taken into consideration? It's... a grey area.

プレゼント ~ purezento

帯飾り(かざり~obi-kazari) obi-charm

簪 (かんざし~kanzashi) hair ornament 箸（はし~hashi）stick

芸妓ハンメイル ~ Geisha fan mail

Mail - I loved it as a kid. Getting it, sending it - good old fashioned United States Postal Service snailmail - all of it. I was a philatelist and my father still has envelopes from Hong Kong with the upper right hand corner torn out from where I had harvested his Queen Elizabeth II stamps. I knew how to spell Lichtenstein at age twelve.

I still feel a little thrill holding a package or postcard from a country I've never visited, so I can understand the eagerness young people have at the prospect of a message from a foreign place. Now imagine that you are a young trainee in traditional arts and something of a minor celebrity, a walking tourist attraction if you will. Now turn the adoration into fan mail.

It's not impossible to figure out the address of an okiya from the other side of the world (if I did it, surely you can). The difficult part is when fans write mail in earnest to the person of interest, they often expect a positive response in return. This can create considerable burdens for celebrities. Calculate in your head roughly the amount of free time a maiko/geiko has between classes and engagements and you'll remember why being a art-person is a character-defining lifestyle in Kyoto.

But one can hardly count on a busy arist to respond like a penpal, especially if you have no prior relationship with her. Chances are good that her okaasan intercepts anything that arrives through the mail and filters it to her accordingly ("Oh, you got a congratulatory card from America, but it's not in Japanese so I'll just put it in the pile with the others and you can look at it later" or something). It might be best to channel your energy into going to Kyoto to congratulate these women in person, where their art and charm really shines through. They seem to like entertaining regular customers as much as they like meeting new, interesting people. [The secret is: they want you to keep coming back.]

I channel my energy into supporting artists - buying their CDs, paying full price to their events, and respecting their right to privacy. It's one thing to post online for the world to see who is and is not associated to a geisha's particular okiya (they themselves post it for the world to see, therefore it's okay). But I'm not about to surrender their home addresses or class schedules or listings of their engagements for the common internet stalker.

ねこふんじゃた ~ Neko funjatta...

I must confess - I am a blog dilettante. I've retired a Xanga account (too many trollers), a half-hearted LiveJournal (too emo), and I'm too tired to edit strands of hypertext markup language (soo 1995). I used to write long before the days of popularized, dummified, pre-packaged web-logs (before they were known as 'blogs' - remember what Usenet and IRC #channels were like then? Ah, the mid-1990s... ) and online journals, but I have been impressed by the quality of some Blogger layouts. I've learned to put my faith in Google.

My parents were always sketchy on the details of how they came up with my Chinese name (羅慧英). It's probable my dad just liked the way it sounded, kinda like how they admired a certain female newsreporter of Chinese descent. The CEDICT dictionary gives me more fruitful results like the idiom "Discerning eyes can tell greatness from mediocrity" [慧眼識英雄 (wai6 ngaan5 sik1 ying1 hung4)] or the phrase "to enjoy the beauty of words" [含英咀華 (ham4 ying1 jeui2 wa4)] - even the term "heroine" [女英雄 (neui5 ying1 hung4)]. Seems almost poetic now.

'Satoai' (さとあい) is the closest japonification (japanisation? nihonising?) of my auxiliary Chinese name if I were to haphazardly tack the kun reading of my generational name [さとい (satoi)] with the on reading of my given name [えい (ei)]. I'm pretty sure name construction doesn't work that way in Japan, but I don’t exactly have a friendly oba-chan prodding me into correction.

As for the title, Neko funjatta, it's a Japanese ditty kids learn on the piano.

ねこふんじゃた　ねこふんじゃった
Neko funjata, Neko funjatta
I stepped on the cat, I stepped on the cat

ねこふんじゃったーら
Neko funjatta-ra
When I stepped on the cat

とびだした！
Tobidashita!
It leaped away!


It's known as the Flea Waltz in Europe, but the notation indicates it's not in 3/4 time. I suspect it's played in vivace with a slight ritard on the "-jatta". Damn, my sight reading sucks. :{

Wiki it: Der Flohwalzer

着物ライフ ~ Kimono Life ~

It actually says “kimono raifu”, but it’s close enough.