Portrait of recollection Vol2 (Japanese Edition)

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It would be progressively developed over the next several years, as the simplified Series 1 and 2 vibratos used on many Burns models. This would be another Burns trademark. The patent filing for this unit was December 6, , by which time the guitar was just being introduced into production. These carry the earliest Burns serial numbers — many have only two digits.

Still, they seem to have sold out soon enough. Of the 50 or so built, a small number survive in Burns collections, while several more are known to have been destroyed or modified beyond retrieval. One of the very few in the U. Few successful period players appear to have used an original Black Bison professionally. More recently, renowned English avant-gardist Fred Frith still often uses a highly modified four-pickup Black Bison, but it is so little original it may not exactly count!

The elaborately handmade four-pickup Black Bison proved simply too fussy to mass-produce, so success spurred its own innovation. The Black Bison thus mutated into a more practical, if subtly less elegant, creation. One far easier to build in quantity.

Apparently, even maverick Jim Burns was beginning to appreciate the production benefits of standardization! At this time, a new branch of the Bison family was introduced. Both were, in fact, available in a range of colors, but black appears to have been the overwhelming favorite — a Bison in any other color is a serious rarity! These second-generation Bisons — both bass and guitar — went through some evolutionary changes during a production run of approximately two and a half years.

With their solid sycamore bodies, they tend to be quite heavy, and feel far more solid than many later Burns and Baldwin guitars. Most Bisons feature a bound ebony fingerboard with a zero-fret and plastic dot inlay.

The notable differences in these models come down to the control layout on both and the vibrato tailpiece on the guitar. Earlier examples show four plain alloy knobs, with the control indications engraved on the scratchplate in squint-worthy small print! These are a minor work of art in themselves, with a transparent outer section carrying a painted dot attached to the small center knob and travels over a separate little number plate affixed to the pickguard… surely the most elaborate knob ever conceived!

It is also more reliable in operation… some consider it one of the best whammys ever designed. There is absolutely an overlap of the evolving features; the earliest guitars with serial numbers under 3, generally feature the Series 1 bridge and solid alloy knobs, with the control markings on the pickguard. It must also be noted that, like Fenders, most Burns guitars carry their serial numbers a single series for all models on a neckplate that is easily lost, changed, and certainly never originally installed in proper sequence, so , all number and dating information must be seen as approximate.

Still, like Fender instruments, the patterns tend to be fairly consistent. This new Black Bison guitar was priced to Guineas, the bass slightly less. While it seems to have sold fairly well, the second-generation Black Bison saw relatively few top professional users. One slight exception was Wout Steenhuis, a studio player who had a specialty in re-recording instrumental versions of hits of the day, much as the Ventures and others did in the U. A player who did was Allan Ward of the Honeycombs, who usually played an early three-pickup Bison. Whether their lively Joe-Meek-produced records were actually cut with Burns gear is hard to say, but their bright twangy sound on discs suggests it.

Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs were a well-known Australian band that similarly featured the striking Black Bison guitars to good effect.

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Indeed, older Burns guitars were sent to the antipodes in fairly large numbers, and can still sometimes be found there more easily than in the rest of the world. The later Bison Bass would score some high-profile U. Williams may well have been the most respected musician to have played any Bison! There is no evidence that early Bisons were ever distributed in the U. With freight and duties, the already-expensive Bisons would have been astronomically priced by the time they reached the U.

On this side of the Atlantic, they remain an extremely rare sight. Most American players have never seen an original! Ironically, they are often thought of as a cheap or cheesy guitar here. Still, to this day, any Burns Bison will help you stand out from the crowd! Despite their relative success, the second-generation models were fairly short-lived, with a production span of probably just over two years.

But the original four-pickup model has never been revived in any form. Still, it remains an unmistakable guitar, and a testament to the vision of its brilliantly eccentric designer. This article originally appeared in VG March issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Published June 15th by Kodansha first published To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

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Be the first to ask a question about Memories of Silk and Straw. Lists with This Book. Dec 19, Hana rated it it was amazing Shelves: Come, sit down by the fire, and listen to the grandparents tell stories about "how it was in the old days" in a small lakeside town just north of Tokyo. Midwives and pawnbrokers, fishermen and thatchers spin tales of a different world--one that was still very much a part of Japan's ancient feudal history. The elderly people interviewed during the s by Dr.

Junichi Saga were mostly born in the late s or early part of the 20th century; through the memories passed to them by their parents, t Come, sit down by the fire, and listen to the grandparents tell stories about "how it was in the old days" in a small lakeside town just north of Tokyo. Junichi Saga were mostly born in the late s or early part of the 20th century; through the memories passed to them by their parents, the narrative stretches back into Japan's Meiji period in the 's.

The vignettes are organized by topics boatmen and fishing, crafts, etc. The narratives are greatly enhanced by watercolors and pen-and-ink drawings created by the author's father, Dr. Susumu Saga--and my one criticism is that the illustrations should be larger though I suspect that reflects a sort of modesty that both the father and son must share.

Many of the memories are filtered through time and have the soft glow of a Japanese woodcut, even the hard things are recalled with a certain realism and even pride. And then, here and there, are memories that come at you like a gut punch.

Recollections from the Past, Vol. 2

To give you a bit of a feel, I'll share some quotes, along with illustrations. Alas, I could not find Dr. Saga's paintings online--for that you'll have to read the book, and I hope that you will. The Carter , Mr.

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But I suppose the reason I never packed it in was that I was too fond of my horses. I remember one evening I got very drunk on shochu and fell asleep splayed out in the back of the cart. The horse managed to find its way home and outside the house it neighed to let everyone know it was back. And when she did have to go out maybe on business or to visit a friend, she always went by rickshaw Because everyone was so hard up around here, 'thinning out' the newborn was quite widely practiced.

The number of children killed just depended, I'm told, on how strict the local policeman was. I was up not long after midnight, I was out on the boats til mid afternoon, then, I had to cook and clean the house--and there were the paddy fields to be tended too. The only chance I ever had to do any laundry was at ten or eleven at night, and I'd end up hanging it out to dry by moonlight. We all had powerful muscles, huge hands and feet, and dark, weather-beaten faces. Fishing folk hardly ever got sick. Even in winter I never wore more than a pair of thin cotton shorts.

And we never wore shoes, either. It was only after the war that country people started wearing shoes. I reckon it's why they're so feeble.

They had to find a customer every night or they got into trouble. If no one had come along asking for her by nine o'clock, the girl would have to hang around in the street trying to persuade passersby to come inside. She was expected to stand out there til midnight or even later. You can imagine how nasty it was in the winter; the girls had to wait outside dressed only in thin kimono--they got frozen to the marrow. Each of them was allowed to spend his last night here with a geisha. A lot of the girls were young too at the time, and just for a night they became young wives, to comfort them They all looked desperate.

It doesn't get any more graphic than this except for one really horrific event described by the midwife and some details about beheadings discussed by the executioner. Both chapters are clearly marked in the chapter title so they can be skipped. Otherwise, no sexual descriptions or strong language, some drunkenness and violence. Nov 24, Chrissie rated it liked it Shelves: You learn for example exactly how one thatched a roof or dyed cloth or arranged different hairstyles. There are chapters about all kinds of people - gangsters to fishermen to teachers to geisha.

Life was hard and yet they played and enjoyed life in very simple ways too. Wonderful sketches and photos and a helpful map of all the places named. I might have enjoyed the book more if I had read one chapter Very interesting. I might have enjoyed the book more if I had read one chapter a day.

This was like reading a book of poems from start to finish. Or like reading a dictionary. Each episode was interesting and informative, but the reader cannot so quickly empathize with the person talking. Each episode of pages was just too short to allow for this. I can in no way criticize the book, but I am not going to say I was glued to the pages.

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Dec 30, Louise rated it it was amazing Shelves: These are the stories of everyday people in a small town in Japan. The narratives are short, Studs Turkel style, stories of early 20th century Japan from interviews made 70 or so years later. The small town, just outside of Tokyo is large enough to have a department store that closes for a month to auction off silk cocoons a draper and separate areas for brothels and geisha.

There is a lake, teeming with fish and a nearby air force training center. All interviewees agree that the area, now lace These are the stories of everyday people in a small town in Japan. All interviewees agree that the area, now laced with superhighways and modern construction is not recognizable.

No one is pining for "good old days". What is striking is the poverty and its signs such as stories of paying or not paying the rice rent, households without pans, the work and logistics of bathing, the acceptance of infanticide and so much more.

Life is hard and most people work round the clock. The fishermen can always eat fish, but like almost everyone else has a life of continual work to make ends meet. Life as a geisha was not easy either. One former geisha's story of the kamikaze pilots was the most touching piece I've read on this topic. There is technical knowledge here, such as how to make a roof, how to pack eggs to get them to market, how to dye fabric and how to style hair.

This book is beautifully laid out on a very nice grade of paper. While it would have changed the character of the book, the drawings are exquisite, and their level of detail begs for a larger format. Perhaps life in larger cities is much better in pre-war Japan. Novels such as those by Tanizaki do not hint of this life. A Novel Joji's mother lives in the countryside, and it's a pleasant visit and he even inherits some wealth from her.

The The Makioka Sisters enjoy catching fireflies in the country.

A Quiet Recollection

In Mishima's The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea" the town is portrayed as prosperous, the protagonist's mother has a shop dealing in luxury goods. The grinding poverty in this book tells a very differnt story. I read this book in two sittings, but the better way is to savor it with two or three portraits a day.

Nov 28, Dorothy rated it it was amazing. This is a wonderful study of Japan in the early part of the 20th century and a book that can be enjoyed by reading all the way through or by dipping into. The book was produced in the s and is composed of short biographies of actual people who lived in a rural area of Japan during the years of the Meiji Restoration. Their lives are diverse In order to get the material for the book, Dr Junich This is a wonderful study of Japan in the early part of the 20th century and a book that can be enjoyed by reading all the way through or by dipping into.

In order to get the material for the book, Dr Junichi Saga interviewed a number of elderly people who were willing to discuss their lives in childhood through to middle age. Some were fishermen, some shop owners, some rice farmers.

They had to be strong to follow their occupations using primitive methods, and most had no transport other then their own feet. I found it fascinating to learn how cloth was dyed, how rice crackers were made, how Geisha were trained, even how the Japanese Air Force was trained by British airmen after the First World War using aircraft that had been discarded by the Brits. A very good read and highly recommended.

Mar 11, Incandragon rated it it was amazing Shelves: Man, but I love this type of first person reminiscence of a known but unknown world. Seriously, one long lifetime ago in Japan? We're talking medieval feudalism. This book is filled with reminiscences and detailed histories of life, back when people made their own bricks, thatched their own houses, and regularly got sick from eating bad food because food preservation was non-existent.

It's an almost sad book, since nearly every person who could remember life from 90 years ago has a lot to say on h Man, but I love this type of first person reminiscence of a known but unknown world. It's an almost sad book, since nearly every person who could remember life from 90 years ago has a lot to say on how entirely their old world is gone And that's just to eke out a basic living. It was fascinating to hear about how things were.

Nevertheless, I'm still pretty glad I live when I do. Some of my favorite memories: Jan 03, Barry Lancet rated it really liked it Shelves: If famed folklorist Alan Lomax had been steeped in the traditional ways of Japan and possessed a subtle eye for the Japanese character, he might have penned this book. Saga, the proverbial beloved village doctor, all but channeled Lomax, recording the stories of his elderly patients as he saw their way of life disappearing.

He gets them to open up to him, and the reader is rewarded with a series of personal recollections from a tatami-mat maker, the town midwife, a yakuza, the local If famed folklorist Alan Lomax had been steeped in the traditional ways of Japan and possessed a subtle eye for the Japanese character, he might have penned this book. He gets them to open up to him, and the reader is rewarded with a series of personal recollections from a tatami-mat maker, the town midwife, a yakuza, the local fishing folks husbands and wives , woodworkers, and more.

The result is a moving portrayal of village life in provincial Japan—from the inside. Wonderfully translated by Garry O. Out of print but worth tracking down. Oct 21, Grady McCallie rated it it was amazing. This fascinating book consists of roughly 60 short recollections of life in a rural Japanese town between and World War II. They were collected, edited, and arranged by Dr.

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