I am watching the anime film adaptation of a Japanese historical manga series called Miss Hokusai. The series was written and produced by Hinako Sugiura and adapted into an anime film by Keiichi Hara. It tells the story of Katsushika Ōi who worked in the shadow of her artist father Hakusai in Endo (modern Tokyo) in the early 19th century.
I am not used to anime films so I don’t know what to compare it to, but it is so fun and fresh. It is injected with modern rock and roll music, modern sensibilities, and some current language, yet it also flows fluently into quiet moments such as tea ceremony and moments of artistic creation. Plus, there is the cutest little dog who reminds me of my Annie, so: sold.
In one of the opening sequences, the daughter apprenctice inadvertently ruins her father’s painting of a dragon, a painting the patron expects most urgently. She sets herself to the task to try and make it right and create another dragon painting, but a young artist reminds her of a Chinese proverb: An act of painting a dragon cannot be forced. One must wait for the dragon to descend.
Later that night, there is a storm, and should I say what emerges from the storm?
I look forward to reading more about the film as well as the artist and his daughter in this wonderful review.
In the meantime, I will hazard a few questions with my dilettante thoughts: Are you waiting for something to appear from your storm? I don’t think patience is all that bad of an idea. Maybe you are waiting to make a decision. Maybe things just don’t seem clear. Sometimes when we try too hard, things don’t come together. Maybe you are waiting to feel something creative emerge before you can create.
Last year during Inktober I created my dragon piece. And now that I’ve seen some of this anime, I am totally inspired. I am also remembering at the beginning of this Inktober I was going to do something with gargoyles. At some point, a writing friend told me she worked on writing fictional gargoyles. I told her: Why not write imaginatively of the gargoyles who “survived” the burning of Notre Dame? I’m not sure if she was into my concept, but I may be! Or at least something similar. First I will wait for the gargoyle to descend.
Last year, a dragon appeared to a boy in one of my Inktober stories. Maybe this came from some deep memory of my late brother as a boy. He loved the 1977 partially animated film “Pete’s Dragon.” It is weird, I am only just now remembering this. He loved all films about animals and he loved all animals. The family situation depicted in my micro doesn’t depict our reality, but how my brother would have loved it if Pete had materialized in his life, “descended.” He was a creative guy and wrote wonderful fictional work. He understood the concept of the organic creative process.
“Dragon”
When Daddy went to prison, a white dragon appeared. “Climb on my back,” he said. My mother was sleeping with another man. I felt the sad on the dragon’s skin. So much breath rushed through, maybe tears. I cried as we flew under the yellow moon, through the inky night.