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Marketing

The ear catches the eye, Music in Japanese Prints, Hotei Publishing, Leiden.

38. Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-92), "The moon at Shizugadake-Hideyoshi". (Shizugadake no tsuki-Hideyoshi', from the series One-hundred aspects of the moon, (Tsuki no hyakushi), 1888 (originally issued 25/x/1888), Signed Yoshitoshi with seal Taiso, Blocks cut by Enkatsu Noguschi (sealed Enkatsu to), Published by Akiyama Bemon, Woodblock, oban, 360 x245, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag PRM-1988-002,

The military leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi, (1536-98) blows a conch shell (horagai) by moonlight at Mount Shizugadake.

The title, The Ear Catches the Eye, is what caught my attnetion more than the cover piece of a female figure playing a 3 stringed guitar-like instrument with a long neck, a shamisen. She must be a geisha. She's elaborately costumed. This book says geishas weren't prostitutes but rather entertainers adept in conversation and music. That's what I've always heard but, still, it's hard to believe they they didn't sell sex under the right circumstances. The individuals who performed the tea ceremony in tea houses were often prostitutes as were attendants in bathhouses. I went to Britannica and while the article mentioned various forms of entertainment, it said nothing about prostitution at all but toward the end, it said that the numbers of Geisha's are now dwindling because of the increased availability of "more casual sex". Whatever entertainment Geisha's offered, their presentation---music, clothing, make-up, hair, conversation--- was complexly, elaborately structured to cue imagination and desire. The availability of prostitutes made me think of the Mormon movie of brothels in India in which the movie makers took several children from the district where the prostitutes and their families lived and worked and tried to put them in school and to otherwise educate them toward higher cultural ideals. I recall thinking how it seemed impractical and vain to teach one of the young males photography in such a poverty stricken and morally depraved environment and to take the group horseback riding on an ocean beach but I guess the experience of the other is central to change. The movies said all of these children dropped out of schools which had been arranged for them but I don't think there has ever been a sequel to show the eventual outcome. Anyway, what I was trying to say, and I think I may yet go back up and tell about that movie about the Thai prostitute who described how she and her friend both had sexual intercourse with a wealthy Japanese man in a Jakarta hotel, is that the Chinese character for "to see" and "to hear" is the same. (I have to check that.) In this book, it has this interesting etymology for the brothel district that was established and maintained in Edo (Tokyo) 3 or 400 years ago by governmental mandate: 'The quarter was named "Yoshiwara" (yoshi, reed; wara, field. It doesn't give the kanji characters.) as it occupied a vast riverfront area overrun with reeds. In 1626, the character for "reed" was replaced by a much more auspicious character meaning "good fortune", also pronounced "yoshi"'. There was a little flurry or short din as I got here. They've been tormenting me with some of their more cruel motifs but I don't want to take the time. I haven't been able to make anything yet of the reeds although the Hebrew name of the Red Sea is the Sea of Reeds and it was in the hollow stalk of a reed that Prometheus hid the fire he had stolen. I think I copied a picture of Egyptian craftsmen blowing on a fire through hollow tubes and how workers in Mexico use a hollow tube to suck up the Agave juice from which pulque is made. I think also, I took discussed my thought that red coral was seen as a petrified vein of life force. I just copied this into the draft file without any interference. This doesn't have an automatic save but in most ways it is better than the draft file on my e-mail. Another thing I noticed is that I recognized the character for moon in the artist's text. I picked it out after I realized that this is a section containing pictures with "moon" in the title or caption or whatever. It's in cursive or calligraphic style and various a little from pic to pic, but it is easy to read. That the graph for "friend" is two moon characters side by side could be relevant. I've been trying to find a place to fit in the scripture at Isaiah 14-12, How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! [how] art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

I was struck by the beauty of this one and its artistic merit but had to look at it a time or 2 before I remembered the passage from [[[]]] the book I quoted yesterday under the Gabriel/Dionysus of Zurbaran. This passage is in the author's commentary on on several verses in the first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita in which several of the leaders b

Yes, two trays of food, one a selection of mini sandwiches, the other small bitesize tibits. That's all! Wow..that's really pathetic. I can't think of a more appropriate or accurate word to describe it. And worse, they recycled this for lunch, afternoon tea and evening cocktail! Terrible. This makes it the worst club-lounge food presentation I have ever countered in all my hotel stays. What the heck is the hotel thinking?

Compare this to the buffet style servings at both the Ritz Carlton Kuningan and Ritz Carlton Pacific Place in Jakarta. Makes the Kempinski appears stingy and embarassing. Management is cutting cost like there's no tomorrow.

Unless they improve, forget about booking a club room at this hotel, totally NOT WORTH IT!