#eiryu

[love1kimono]

Postcard of Two Geisha Printed on Textured Paper

Postmarked February 11, 1923; printed by an unknown Japanese publisher.

Geisha Eiryu on the right.

[crabdraws]

No name for this piece, just five of my touhou OCs together.

In order from left to right:

Mizuki Efude, the Rainbow virtuoso.

Chimere Grandghoul, the Ghastly Stone Seamstress.

Kanisuke Heikegani, mild-tempered fisherman.

Fusako Nurikabe, energetic path protector.

Eiryu, untrustworthy phantom dragon

I already talked about Kanisuke Heikegani and Mizuki Efude on this blog. One is an ex-shikigami crab who retired to Gensokyo to spend their day fishing, the other is a paintbrush tsukogami who makes art pieces inspired by danmaku. However, the other three i never talked about here so this is their first appearence on the blog.

Chimere is a gargoyle, specifically a mixture of a draconic one and a demonic one brought to life together through possession from the ghost of the french dragon the sculture is named after. The process was imperfect and resulted in her stone body being cracked, with backward wings and the dragon head working as a tail. Very self conscious over her appearence, took solace in sewing and working with textiles as a whole. She can breathe blue fire from her dragon half and paralyze with the gaze of her humanoid half.

Fusako is, as her surname suggest, a nurikabe, an invisible wall-like youkai that puts itself in the path of people to stop them from moving forward. However, Fusako herself does this for more noble reason: she is very keen on road safety, blocking paths that seem dangerous in her eyes. She takes the job very seriously, that she will put herself or her giant plush in front of source of dangers in order to stop people from approaching. However, due to her appearence, she is often not believed or taken seriously. Her ability consists in making invisible, unbreakable barriers thar works as long as she stay concentrated and focused. She is bad at it.

Last is Eiryu. A dragon wearing a porcelain mask that despite being a dragon is actually very weak to the point that some fairies could defeat him at danmaku rather easily. So he often plays dirty, using his ability to change the shape of shadows to make himself look larger and scarier, hiding his projectiles or making his spell cards look harder than they are. This fails often however, and when the trick is discovered he makes a quick getaway by diving into the shadows of people and objects and emerging somewhere else. Claims that he would be stronger if more people were go worship him, but when asked why everyone would do that, the answer is often obtuse and half-baked.

I wish i could tell more about each of them, but that will come when i eventually post single pieces of each character. This is the first time i try to squeeze many character on a single paper sheet. I am rather happy with the result.

[maigeiko]

Eiryû I of Shinbashi, 1897. Src.

[ileftmyheartintokyo]

Tsukimi-Dango 1906 by Blue Ruin 1 Via Flickr: Geigi (geisha) Eiryū I with sake (rice wine) and tsukimi-dango (moon-viewing dumplings) on a sanbō (Shintō offering table), ready for Otsukimi (a moon-viewing ceremony). Captioned 當世風俗千姿 (Present-day customs in a thousand poses).

[love1kimono]

Geisha Eiryu posing with a Daruma snowman

"…….The Japanese word for snowman is "yukidaruma". "Daruma" is a round "wish doll" with no arms or legs. It represents the Zen monk, Bodhidharma, and snowmen in Japan are modeled after it. It is always very interesting to find out culture differences, even when it is only snowmen……."

Ca.1908-12 hand-colored collotype print.

[love1kimono]

EIRYU -- QUEEN of the POSTCARD GEISHAS

Ca.1908-12 hand-colored collotype print.

[love1kimono]

Eiryu adjusting her kimono

Ca.1908-12 hand-colored collotype print.

[maigeiko]

Geisha Eiryu holding a Baby Bird 1910s

This postcard is hand-coloured using a stencil, which has left the colours slightly out of sync with the images.