HIROSHIGE AND VAN GOGH: BRIDGE IMAGES

HIROSHIGE AND VAN GOGH: BRIDGE IMAGES, a photo by roberthuffstutter on Flickr.

HIROSHIGE AND VAN GOGH...the first image in my blog about Japan.
BLOGABOUTJAPAN

yokohama

yokohama, a photo by kosukeszk on Flickr.

yokohama
1羽だけ逆向き。

This is one of the best photographs of the old HIKAWA MARU that I have ever seen. The gulls on the lines are a bonus. You are one excellent photographer. My congratulations to you for your capture of a ship I saw for the first time in 1961. Yokohama was and remains one of my favorite cities.

This is a memory that is fond and one that is bittersweet. It was near this ship, in Yamashita Park, where my love and I walked hand in hand time and again in the 60s.
__________________________________
yokohama by kosukeszk

Original

Original, a photo by Mustang Koji on Flickr.

Another favorite from the Flickr Photostream posted by Mustang Koji, one of my favorite photographers and curators of photos from Japan of another era. Many of the photos in Mustang Koji's photostream were taken by his father, an Army Sergeant in the U.S. Army during the Occupation era. This photo is one of Mustang Koji's aunts. She is a beautiful lady.
__________________________________
This is the original B&W of the magazine cover showing my Aunt Eiko. Over the years, it had gotten cut at odd angles.

Taken in 1948 in Occupied Japan.

SOMEDAY I WILL WRITE MY NOVEL ABOUT JAPAN

My blog, BLOGABOUTJAPAN, is an ongoing narrative about my memories of Japan, accompanied by photographs and art I select from various sources.

Followers of this blog about Japan know how fond I am of Japan and how much I admire the Japanese people. I must confess that part of my love for Japan is because of the love I had for a young woman I met in Japan in 1962. It was a love that began at first sight. Sadly, it was a love that became a memory when my ship sailed toward home in late December 1963. Fate did not allow our love to continue, thus the love affair ended with a Sayonara that was my fault, a sayonara that haunts me to this day.

I could continue with this sad and romantic narrative, but it would make no difference--time has been stolen from our lives and one cannot return back in time to make changes that would effect the future. No, it is over and only memories remain. Nevertheless, the joys we shared for such a short time would fill a thick volume of a novel based on our love for the other and the events and travels we shared. Some of our conversations would create many smiles by both Japanese and American readers. We were both so innocent and young, so full of hope for our future together.

It is my goal to write this novel before I exit this world.

My love for the Japanese people is also based on the experiences I enjoyed during my tour of duty. There are so many stories about events and positive encounters I have yet to record. However, time permitting, I will write about them as I recall them. They will become a part of my novel. Some of these positive events will be illustrated with sketches and paintings. Some of the events were too intimate to illustrate, but rest assured they are still very much alive in my mind.

There was so much of Japan I did not see or experience in my tour, events that I would enjoy if I had the luxury of returning to that unique era of the 1960s Japan.

As I rode the trains from Sagami-Otsuka to Yokohama, I did not doze or sleep, I observed all that was happening in post-war Japan.

Matsuzakaya PX

Matsuzakaya PX, a photo by Mustang Koji on Flickr.

The main street of Tokyo, it was a
"must see" for me.

I clearly remember my New Year's eve at an expensive and upscale club on the Ginza on New Year's eve of 1961/1962.

This was before I met the young lady of my dreams, so I spent the evening with one of my best Navy friends. Shortly after our big party on that New Year's eve, he was commissioned as a Lieutenant-Junior Grade and sent to Naval Aviator's flight school in Pensacola. Had my eye sight been 20/20, I would have enjoyed the same duty, but I would never have met the young lady that still makes my life sweet by simply remembering her.

Life is full of joys and contradictions, but I must accredit much to Fate.

The Ginza, with its many lights must surely be quite different today than it was on New year's Eve of 1961.
___________________________________
THANKS TO MY FRIEND KOJI KANEMOTO, for permission to post this photo. It was taken by his father, a Seargeant in the U.S.Army whose duties helped Japan reconstruct the nation throughout the Occupation.
___________________________________
Matsuzakaya PX by Mustang Koji

"The boat Vincent used while drifting down the Sumida with Mariko..."

"The boat Vincent used while drifting down the Sumida with Mariko...", a photo by roberthuffstutter on Flickr.

"The boat Vincent used while drifting down the Sumida with Mariko..."
Theo arranged a trip to Japan to help Vincent defeat the despondency he was suffering. Exactly how long he stayed is not known; in fact, it was only recently discovered that Van Gogh visited Japan.
___________________________________
This watercolor with pen and ink is one in a series I have done that features a fictional "secret trip" to Japan by Vincent Van Gogh. I only wish that Van Gogh had been able to have spent several years in Japan. One can only imagine the works he would have done.

Streetcar in Tokyo near Shinbashi Station, circa 1955

Streetcar in Tokyo near Shinbashi Station, circa 1955, a photo by Rob Ketcherside on Flickr.

This really reminds me of the Japan I knew in the early 1960s. I want to paint this one.
___________________________________

Streetcar in Tokyo near... by Rob Ketcherside

PHOTO BY ROB KETCHERSIDE

Hakone

Hakone, a photo by Emilien Deloche on Flickr.

The title of this work by Emilien Deloche is "Week end in Hakone"
________________________________

Hakone is probably one of the most romantic spots for spending a weekend with a loving friend. The last time I spent a weekend in Hakone was in 1963 and the memories are still warm and exciting to my mind; they are moments I recall now and then while in a wishful thinking kind of mood.

Tokyo_Shibuya/東京、渋谷

Tokyo_Shibuya/東京、渋谷, a photo by Emilien Deloche on Flickr.

Tokyo_Shibuya/東京、渋谷
Early in the morning at the Starbuck
__________________________________

Emilien Deloche is the administrator of a public group featured on Flickr. It is for sketches of and about Japan, a great visual treat for all who are fascinated by Japan.

BRIEF STATS FOR JAPANESE ECONOMY BEGINNING 1955

BRIEF STATS FOR JAPANESE ECONOMY BEGINNING 1955, a photo by roberthuffstutter on Flickr.

CHARACTER, NOT RESOURCES, HAS MADE JAPAN AN ECONOMIC SUPER POWER

From the ruins of a devastated nation to one of the world's super economic powers. There are many nations that might well learn much about Japan. It is not Japan's natural resources that has made it a success, it is Japan's character.

Unless a nation has character, it will remain poor and hopeless. There are many factors here that some nations will never understand because they have decided to hate free enterprise and especially American democracy.

Robert L. Huffstutter

Intersection | Tokyo

Intersection | Tokyo, a photo by navid j on Flickr.

Ginza, Tokyo
www.navidbaraty.com | facebook | twitter | behance | 500px | g+

Honda van

Honda van, a photo by Howard33 on Flickr.

Howard's Flickr Photostream is full of unique and rare, or seldom-seen vehicles. This little Honda van surely served its purpose well. One can imagine how easily pizzas could be delivered in and around the narrow alleys of Tokyo and Yokohama. For more information about this van, here the web site:

http://lanemotormuseum.org/honda-life-step-van-1973
___________________________________
Thanks to Howard for this refreshing photo of another time in Japan's spectacular automotive history.