Japanese tiki? Korean tiki! Is it really tiki?

I have no idea what these fellows are saying or where they came from. Yet they are totem-like and could possibly be considered "Tiki" (if not tiki-ish) albeit in a Japanese style.

I wanted to find out what the Tiki Central crew thought of them. Do they push the boundaries of tiki too far? Anyone have a translation for these Japanese characters?

On flickr: http://flickr.com/photos/79761301@N00/

[ Edited by: lynxwiler 2008-04-30 13:06 ]

Well, if you are looking for opinions, they don't look tiki to me. What
do you think Big Bro?
And I think the Japanese translation is PEZ.

Korean

Japanese scarecrows?

What dogbytes said (linked to). These aren't Japanese, they're Korean.

On 2008-04-28 17:23, lynxwiler wrote:
I have no idea what these fellows are saying or where they came from. Yet they are totem-like and could possibly be considered "Tiki" (if not tiki-ish) albeit in a Japanese style.

I wanted to find out what the Tiki Central crew thought of them. Do they push the boundaries of tiki too far? Anyone have a translation for these Japanese characters?

On flickr: http://flickr.com/photos/79761301@N00/

Definitely Japanese or Chinese - they use the same characters . TEN KA TAI SHO GUN ( male ) CHI KA JO SHO GUN ( female ) in the pair photo . Next is another woman so kanji means the same as in top pic .

Roughly means PUBLIC GENERAL/COMMANDER ( man ) and UNDERGROUND GENERAL/COMMANDER ( woman ) .@

Third , fourth and fifth of a man .

[ Edited by: sushiman 2008-04-28 20:29 ]

[ Edited by: sushiman 2008-04-28 20:29 ]

[ Edited by: sushiman 2008-04-28 20:31 ]

YIKES! I just spat rum all over my monitor, don't scare me like that.

Thanks for the translation sushiman!

I had suspected the written characters expressed a thought or greeting; something more than a noun. I'm surprised there's not more to it. What do you suppose they were used for?

If I find the nerve, I'll look up the property owner on the web and ask about them. There's four of these fellows by the roadside and two more further down the fenced driveway.

Bamboo stu: You may have lost your rum, but I nearly lost control of my car when I saw these eyes staring me down on the side of the road. They are creepy in a way, but I do like 'em a lot.

Perhaps, since they are meant to be male and female, they were restroom markers? LOL

On 2008-04-28 23:14, lynxwiler wrote:
Thanks for the translation sushiman!

I had suspected the written characters expressed a thought or greeting; something more than a noun. I'm surprised there's not more to it. What do you suppose they were used for?

If I find the nerve, I'll look up the property owner on the web and ask about them. There's four of these fellows by the roadside and two more further down the fenced driveway.

Bamboo stu: You may have lost your rum, but I nearly lost control of my car when I saw these eyes staring me down on the side of the road. They are creepy in a way, but I do like 'em a lot.

On 2008-04-28 23:14, lynxwiler wrote:
Thanks for the translation sushiman!

I had suspected the written characters expressed a thought or greeting; something more than a noun. I'm surprised there's not more to it. What do you suppose they were used for?

If I find the nerve, I'll look up the property owner on the web and ask about them. There's four of these fellows by the roadside and two more further down the fenced driveway.

Bamboo stu: You may have lost your rum, but I nearly lost control of my car when I saw these eyes staring me down on the side of the road. They are creepy in a way, but I do like 'em a lot.

OK ! Did some research and got you info on these ! They are Korean ( Koreans use some Chinese kanji in their language ) and called " Changsung " , which means " village guardian " . They were usually placed at the outskirts of villages to mark boundaries and frighten away demons . Apparently,they were also worshipped as village gods ,too .

There are wood as well as stone versions .

Hope this helps !

Sushiman

On 2008-04-29 16:44, sushiman wrote:
... frighten away demons...

Certainly frightened me... eegad!!! my eyes, my eyes!!

Woa! Yes, not traditional tiki, but still totally cool I think. They'd be a real nice addition to a collection.... or maybe one side of your tiki bar could serve Saki?! I love 'em!

I think my translation would be:

"We are the forgotten"

"Please let me out of this internment camp"

Very cool in an Asian tiki kinda way!

PTD

[ Edited by: Psycho Tiki D 2008-04-30 13:01 ]

I think you misread the characters.
the translation actually is "I turned to wood waiting for people to learn how to respond to a thread without reposting all the photos"

..sb

On 2008-04-30 12:38, Suffering Bastard in Maine wrote:
I think you misread the characters.
the translation actually is "I turned to wood waiting for people to learn how to respond to a thread without reposting all the photos"

..sb

SB~See post above. Sorry! I edited it to meet your posting standards!

PTD

wow. touchy.

Not "Japanese Tiki", nor Korean Tiki, because really not Tiki in my book. Stylistically, these do not move me because I would categorize them more as "naive" art and as Folk art. If you include these carvings in Tiki style, you might as well ad German carnival masks, lumber jack wood spirits, and all kinds of folk art creatures of all kinds of cultures. The rounded-off features of these characters are too human-like to me, the genius of cubist abstraction that pervades and Polynesian, Oceanic and African primitive art is missing.

These guys are not Tiki the same way that some of the Tiki revival carvings from Florida we have seen here on TC recently are not Tikis:
When wood carvings are merely exaggerated caricatures of the human face (big eyes, grinning mouths, big teeth) and show no stylistic connection to any Polynesian or Oceanic culture group, why would you label them with a Polynesian name?

They might fit into a Tiki bar as "Exotica" perhaps, but then so would Japanese Kabuki masks and Chinese dragons...stretching the theme too far for my taste.