Ambeth R. Ocampo's Blog, page 165

Victor Vasarely (1906-1997) was a Hungarian-French artist whose "Op Art" work (l...

Victor Vasarely (1906-1997) was a Hungarian-French artist whose "Op Art" work (left), popular in the 1960s to the 1970's was antedated by the Itnegs of Abra who were weaving Op Art blankets since the 19th century (right). This "binakol design" appropriated by some Ilocos weavers today is also known as "kosikos" (spherical) said to be a representation of whirlwind. Please share.


2014

Cycling aimlessly around Kyoto has its surprises. I wanted to go to the museum b...

Cycling aimlessly around Kyoto has its surprises. I wanted to go to the museum but ended up in a quaint alley with a vision of old and new.


2014

Prewar studio photos tell us a lot about fads. Most Filipino women wore baro't s...

Prewar studio photos tell us a lot about fads. Most Filipino women wore baro't sya, a few wore American fashion and I've always wondered why it was popular for women to wear "Igorot" costume or even Japanese kimono. I presume one could rent the costumes as easily as one could choose the painted background.


2014

Exploring Kyoto, ancient capital of Japan, with Ateneo colleagues Leloy Claudio...

Exploring Kyoto, ancient capital of Japan, with Ateneo colleagues Leloy Claudio and Mike Pante, meant: visiting the National Museum, temples; cycling around town; and eating in the Nishiki market, which is relatively new, having been founded in 1615. Yet the most memorable sight today was this shop off Teramachi.


2014

Background on the elephant in Japan that was sent from Manila in 1597 is in my I...

Background on the elephant in Japan that was sent from Manila in 1597 is in my Inquirer column today,
http://opinion.inquirer.net/79180/hideyoshis-elephant-1597


Hideyoshi���s elephant, 1597
opinion.inquirer.net
A few years ago I wrote about Chulalongkorn���s elephants, bronze ones, gifted by the King of Siam to Java and Singapore as souvenirs of his visits in 1871.

Detail from a Namban (Southern Barbarian) painting depicting an elephant in 16th...

Detail from a Namban (Southern Barbarian) painting depicting an elephant in 16th century Japan. It has been suggested that the elephant is "Don Pedro" a gift sent by the Governor-general of the Philippines to please Hideyoshi in 1597 after he had 26 Christians (including Franciscans from Manila) crucified and finished off with lances in Nagasaki. This is the topic of tomorrow's Inquirer column.


2014

Sorry for late posting but I had to go to the library and dig up more leads on e...

Sorry for late posting but I had to go to the library and dig up more leads on early Philippines Japan relations


Martyrs of Nagasaki
opinion.inquirer.net
Nagasaki was one of Japan���s major trading ports, one of a handful open to foreign trade long before the atomic bomb was dropped on the city in 1945. Visitors interested in World War II are brought to the Atomic Bomb Museum (the No. 1 attraction, according to TripAdvisor), and from there they can go���

Sorry for the late posting, was busy following up leads on the Philippines in Ja...

Sorry for the late posting, was busy following up leads on the Philippines in Japan in the 16th centtury.
http://opinion.inquirer.net/79123/martyrs-of-nagasaki


Martyrs of Nagasaki
opinion.inquirer.net
Nagasaki was one of Japan���s major trading ports, one of a handful open to foreign trade long before the atomic bomb was dropped on the city in 1945. Visitors interested in World War II are brought to the Atomic Bomb Museum (the No. 1 attraction, according to TripAdvisor), and from there they can go���

This 19th century studio portrait of an unidentified Gobernadorcillo helped me i...

This 19th century studio portrait of an unidentified Gobernadorcillo helped me imagine what Kapitan Tiago and other gobernadorcillos described in Rizal's novels looked like. It also made me wonder about the source of the belief that the Barong Tagalog was see-through and not to be tucked in the pants so that the indios could not conceal weapons from the paranoid Kastilas and Guardias Civiles. Pls share.


2014

I hope those who liked yesterday's post of the smiling lass with the shotgun won...

I hope those who liked yesterday's post of the smiling lass with the shotgun won't mind "Beauty and the Beast" that shows me sharing a poster with Fernando Amorsolo's iconic "Palay Maiden" in the Ayala Museum. Amorsolo not only painted the ideal prewar Filipina, he cleverly inserted a subliminal message regarding Philippine independence. Do you see it? (Poster design Spike Acosta). Pls share.


2014