Wednesday 12 February 2014

Myth and Legend Research - Adaptation Part B

The Momijigari Festival 
In Japanese culture in the Shinto religion nature has a Kami ( a diety or spirit ).
The Goddess Amaterasu is rooted in her asssociation with nature and their formation of the landscape and the origins of fire wind and light. There is a story in which Amaterasu hid her self in a cave because she was upset with her brother and all vegetation died because they couldn't obtain her light, the other gods had to trick her to get her to get out of the cave and to restore the earth.

Tree spirits are referred to as Kodama and they have the form of trees but have spirits trapped inside of them from the elderly that pass away in the nearby towns. They do not contribute to the forest but are said to be responsible for the delayed echoes in mountains. I do not think that I would be introducing Kodama spirits into this piece because they do not contribute to the forest or to its seasonal change.

Nature is reverenced in Japanese culture and the Ise shrine is dedicated to the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, the Shrine is located in the a  forest  amongst  giant crytomeria trees, at the foot of Mount Shimaji and Mount Kamiji.




Japanese cartoons have a distinguished style in which they draw their characters and animals and I would like to use this as inspiration for the style that would inspire the design for the character. 

I would like to put elements of Amaterasu into the design because she is the goddess who is responsible for the environment so this character would be the creature that is directly connected to her that changes the seasons from summer to Autumn.  I would expect there to me four different spirits who would all have a job for changing the seasons, but my focus would be on the Autumn Spirit who would also be the spirit of the Momijigari Festival

The Obon Festival 

The Obon festival is celebrated by placing food offerings at buddhist shrines kept in an individuals home. The lanterns are used as a way of guiding their ancestors from world to the next. 

Because the Obon Festival is also Japanese it will also have the same illustration references that The Momjigari festival has. 

The Holi Festival 

The holi festival originated from many stories one story claims that Krishna was complaining to his mother about how fair his sister was, his mother told him to choose any colour and to paint it on her face. Krishna decided to take up this offer and mischievously painted his sister's face. The story passed dow from generation to generation then became a festival where people took part in having fun with colours. 

The influences that I found for this holiday was through researching Indian Art and there is a section dedicated to elephants, my influence map only has a few examples, these elephants would inspire the characters final look. 


Final conclusion 


After doing some more research the festival that I want to focus in on is the Momijigari Festival I think that it has an interesting concept and I like the information supporting this festival and I think that this will generate really interesting characters. 



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