Pinwheels and their symbolism
Ruperto Mangahas
horror/action types. What is the symbolism they represent in Japanese
culture ? Or is this just an artistic touch ???
Pinwheels - childhood = innocence ?
Ethan Hammond
Only thing Pinwheel reminds me of is that awful infinitely long show Nickleodeon
used to show in the 80's!!!!
--
All Purpose Cultural Randomness
http://www.angelfire.com/tx/apcr/index.html
lad...@sbcglobal.net
"Ethan Hammond" <esha...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:3CD235...@worldnet.att.net...
> Ruperto Mangahas wrote:
> >
> > I have seen pinwheels in a lot of anime series but in particular in a
lot of
> > horror/action types. What is the symbolism they represent in Japanese
> > culture ? Or is this just an artistic touch ???
> >
> > Pinwheels - childhood = innocence ?
I'd like to know, too. In particular, about what anyone here thinks of the
pinwheels in Cowboy Bebop "Hard Luck Woman". Guessing at what goes through
Ed's mind may be futile, but why did she give the pinwheel to Spike, and
then was so happy when he accepted it? Was making him smile on her "I swear
I'll accomplish this before I leave" list? If he was the last one to have it
in his hands, was he the one to mount it on the bow of the Bebop, saying
"don't be a stranger?"
D B Malmquist
I've wondered about that also.
I checked Google archives for this newsgroup, and the question
has come up before, with no authoritative answer. In reference
to "The Hakkenden", which has a surfeit of pinwheels, "Scratch"
speculated [1]
>The Hakkenden (Dog Warriors) has a lot of symbolism. Besides the
>obvious ones of the Kanji beads, there are interesting things
>a sudden cut to a small girl crying followed by a closeup of a
>spinning pinwheel which then shatters. That definitely seems
>symbolic of something, but I'm not sure what! :)
Ah yes, one of my favorite series. Episodes 10 and 11 were just
released recently (subtitled), and a friend of mine and myself sat
back and watched all of the episodes again. The pinwheels are a
recurring symbol throughout almost all of the episodes, and I
personally feel that they are a symbol of innocence, being a
child's toy, spinning freely in the breeze. In the scene you
mention
above, I belive that the small girl is Princess Fuse<?>, and the
pinwheel being ripped apart would be her innocence being lost when
she finds out about the deal that her father made with Yatsufusa
(the dog) and keeps her end of the bargain to save the honor of her
house.
In addition, one web site [2] reports that in Japan pinwheels are
associated with Spring, which if true could easily be extended to
stand for youth or innocence.
Hmmm, let's see if this interpretation is helpful elsewhere. In
"Cowboy Bebop" episode 24,
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Ed finds a pinwheel when she returns to the orphanage where she had
spent several years, then later, just as she is about to leave the
ship, gives it to Spike. OK, that makes sense, she's leaving her
childhood behind and moving forward into adulthood. Also, one notes
some striking similarities between Spike and Ed's real father. So
the fact that Ed gives the pinwheel (her child / innocence) to Spike
suggests that she has recognized how she has been trying to use him
as a surrogate for her father, Having understood this, she must leave
that innocence behind.
Any other examples / counterexamples?
- dbm
[1] http://groups.google.com/groups?q=pinwheel+group:rec.arts.anime*&hl=en&scoring=r&selm=4ti1vi%24952%40nntp1.best.com&rnum=4
[2] http://renku.home.att.net/500ESWd.html#SPRING
lad...@sbcglobal.net
> Hmmm, let's see if this interpretation is helpful elsewhere. In
> "Cowboy Bebop" episode 24,
>
> S
> P
> O
> I
> L
> E
> R
>
> S
> P
> A
> C
> E
>
> Ed finds a pinwheel when she returns to the orphanage where she had
> spent several years, then later, just as she is about to leave the
> ship, gives it to Spike. OK, that makes sense, she's leaving her
> childhood behind and moving forward into adulthood. Also, one notes
> some striking similarities between Spike and Ed's real father. So
> the fact that Ed gives the pinwheel (her child / innocence) to Spike
> suggests that she has recognized how she has been trying to use him
> as a surrogate for her father, Having understood this, she must leave
> that innocence behind.
>
You're the second person I've seen online who has said that Spike was Ed's
father-figure. This strikes me as odd, since she and Spike almost never
interacted, and even then only on an informational level. Jet struck me as
more of her father-figure...unless she saw the Bebop crew as a whole in that
role, and with Jet busy in the galley and Faye gone at that moment she gave
the pinwheel to Spike. If he was the last to have it, was he the one to
mount it on the bow of the ship? What was he saying with it?
Jim
Julie Lim
> Ruperto Mangahas wrote:
> >
> > I have seen pinwheels in a lot of anime series but in particular in a lot of
> > horror/action types. What is the symbolism they represent in Japanese
> > culture ? Or is this just an artistic touch ???
> >
> > Pinwheels - childhood = innocence ?
>
> I've wondered about that also.
>
> I checked Google archives for this newsgroup, and the question
> has come up before, with no authoritative answer. In reference
> to "The Hakkenden", which has a surfeit of pinwheels, "Scratch"
> speculated [1]
>
> [2] http://renku.home.att.net/500ESWd.html#SPRING
In the (first) Rurouni Kenshin OVA, the most obvious pinwheel is the
one that spins throughout the end credits, but there are also some
nearly subliminal ones that flash by in the first episode. After
Kenshin performs his first assassination, there's a quick shot of a
green roadside (with little Buddhist shrines?) with one red pinwheel
on it. This is followed by a somewhat longer scene (or series of them)
in which he's shown killing more people, followed by another shot of
the same green roadside with a *lot* more red pinwheels on it.
I wonder whether in this case, Shinta's top is meant to serve a
metonymic function. Kenshin is never seen with a pinwheel himself in
the OVA, but the top is the last relic of his innocent childhood, and
it's another rotational toy.
Andrew Hollingbury
"D B Malmquist" <d.b.ma...@com.swap-com-and-rcn.rcn> wrote in message
news:3CD2520...@com.swap-com-and-rcn.rcn...
SPOILER SPACE FOR ESCAFLOWNE!
I can't remember the episode title off-hand (curse me and my
semi-fanatacism!), but the episode where Hitomi has flashbacks to the time
her grandmother visited Gaia - her grandmother is carrying a pinwheel when
she first appears.on Gaia. However, I don't think that's symbolic of
anything - she'd just been to a festival if I remember rightly?
Andrew H
James Sternberg
Nickleodeon
> used to show in the 80's!!!!
Do you mean the one that Mini-Moni borrowed the theme music from and had a
big hit song in Japan?
James
Ruperto Mangahas
"Andrew Hollingbury" <a.holl...@ukonline.co.uk> wrote in message
news:aaurrg$o2c$1...@newsg4.svr.pol.co.uk...
>
> "D B Malmquist" <d.b.ma...@com.swap-com-and-rcn.rcn> wrote in message
> news:3CD2520...@com.swap-com-and-rcn.rcn...
> > Any other examples / counterexamples?
>
P
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One particular scene is vampire princess miyu (TV series) -- when she was
starting to transform into a vampire during her puberty there was a clan who
protected the guardian --- (which is to be the Miyu's duty). There was a
scene that there was lots of pinwheels spinning and if I remember correctly
the people who was attempting to destroy Miyu ordered the pinwheels made and
set it there.
Strange Notes :- Sometimes those little buddhist shrines are supposed to
represent uborn children and as such it is a custom to give it offerings of
toys
In some graveyards in Pennsylvania I have seen
pinwheels usually set near the graves of children ...
D B Malmquist
Well, he's certainly not an *ideal* father figure. He does, however,
have some striking similarities to Ed's real father:
o martial-arts otaku.
o (apparently) dismissive of personal entanglements.
o engaged in a quixotic, counter-productive quest. (Ed's father is
making *maps* to give to future generations; he'd be better off
giving *his daughter* to future generations. Spike is gallivanting
around the solar system trying to put crooks behind bars, while
running away from the worst of them, one he helped to get to where
he is now.)
When Ed's father hands Spike his head on a platter, it clicks: that
guy is more Spike than Spike! I think Ed realizes that too, and
when she does, realizes that she's not going to find what she's missing
on Bebop, and that it's time to move on.
> Jet struck me as
> more of her father-figure...unless she saw the Bebop crew as a whole in that
> role, and with Jet busy in the galley and Faye gone at that moment she gave
> the pinwheel to Spike. If he was the last to have it, was he the one to
> mount it on the bow of the ship? What was he saying with it?
Well, it might be that he does that to salute the fact that Ed finally
finds her freedom, and also finds - and grows beyond - her childhood.
Alternatively he might have put it on the bow in recognition of the
fact that Bebop *was* where Ed spent the last parts of her childhood,
then left that childhood behind on Bebop.
- dbm
Manbow Papa
"Ruperto Mangahas" <rfman...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:cLoA8.53585$Lj.38...@bin4.nnrp.aus1.giganews.com...
Mostly yes, I think.
Kazaguruma (pinwheel) is also a Kigo (poetic keyword of
season) for spring. It may also be a symbol of a spining
wheel of fate which implies nobody can be free from own
destiny.
--
/ Ishikawa Kazuo /
(Remove NoS for E-mailing)
Ethan Hammond
Ethan dosen't know?
Doug Jacobs
> Strange Notes :- Sometimes those little buddhist shrines are supposed to
> represent uborn children and as such it is a custom to give it offerings of
> toys
I forget the name of the statues, but they usually appear to be wearing
little bibs.
They represent fetuses who were aborted, or children who died shortly after
childbirth (within their first year of life? not sure...)
I remember visiting a temple somewhere which had a large number of these
lined up along a stairwell and heard an English speaking woman tourist
nearby remark "What darling little statues." She had her picture taken
next to them, and tried asking where she could buy one as a souvenier.
I wonder if the pro-life folks know about these... You can just imagine
the sort of "TRUTH"/holocaust style ads they could come up with them.
D B Malmquist
Apparently so. When I was looking for info on this topic, "Google"
turned up this site:
http://www.lifeissues.net/lib/skf.pdf
Interesting to get confirmation of that fact.
- dbm