I’ve known for a while that a few close co-workers, who I also have the pleasure to call friends, have found pleasure in birding. Despite this, I’ve never taken more than a surface level interest. However, the powers that be recently pushed some adverts of Sean Bean exploring the world of birds on a podcast. Something about the Bean/bird combination captured me.

Perhaps birds sneak up on everyone at some point.

Question Time with Sean and M

So, having been forced a birding podcast advert by the internet, I found myself wanting the full monty. I had a number of chores to do that day, and in the background I chose to listen to season 4, episode 1 of Get Birding - Sean Bean’s maiden voyage in to hosting the podcast!

As he spoke about Sparrows, Starlings and Blackbirds, I couldn’t say I really knew what was happening. What came across loud and clear to me, was how incredibly calm he described himself as feeling - “as if all your troubles would just disappear”. I’m not a stranger to the outdoors, but am sometimes more guily than I’d like when it comes to being unable to be alone without much stimulation for too long.

While the various presenters and guests spoke about the technicalities of binoculars, I was zoned out, thinking about how one was meant to begin birding. I chose to speak to an aformentioned birding friend, M. His advice was sympathetic and simple:

You’re an observant fellow, a curious man in both senses of the word, and as a giant you are closer to the birds than many dare to dream.

I’d say the easiest way is to just… look up

Along with these invigorating words, I was also offered up recommendations for apps to help a newbies! eBird and Merlin Bird ID were my apps of choice! One for identifying, one for logging.

The First Birds!

Woodblock View of Buckingham Palace

Friendly Squirrel

The Plan

I needed to decide on a plan for this trip, and I saw the first step as deciding on a few general locations in the same area of Germany. A good friend, named L, happened to be in Vienna around the time I was wanting to do this, so they suggested I meet them in Vienna for some time. An end-point was decided then. Upon searching for typical tourist pilgrimages in Germany, I came across both Neuschwanstein Castle and the town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Both looked amazing, South German, and plausibly reachable, and so some targets were set!

Mainly based on flight availability, I decided to start with a flight from London to Nuremberg; make my way to the neighbouring Rothenburg ob der Tauber; take a lengthy journey down to Füssen (the closest town to Neuschwanstein Castle); another train to Munich; and finally take a train to Vienna, where I would eventually depart for London.

I won’t want to bore anyone (including myself) with recounting how I scheduled things, but this is the journey I eventually mapped out for myself:

Purple shows timings of train journeys and nights in locations. Red is the train’s path as best as I could map out. Orange are my stop.

Day 1

After considering taking a day in Nuremberg to look around, I decided it would probably be better to have that time in other places on the trip, and so I went from Nuremberg airport directly to the Hauptbahnhof (one of my favourite new words from the trip!). I in fact ended up running for a train at the station, so I didn’t even have time to glance at Nuremberg.

I boarded my first Deutsche Bahn, and was immediately impressed at the size of the trains. In every dimension they are larger than ones in the UK. I was less impressed by the immediate delays… This meant that I missed my connection at Neustadt (Aisch), and had to spend an hour in the middle of nowhere with no internet. This was also the first instance I realised just how little German I knew as I tried to order a bottle of water from a small tuck shop at the station.

Nevertheless, I made it on to my second train and was on my way to Rothenburg ob der Tauber! I made it there with enough time to check in to my hotel in the centre of town, and then I got my first food of the trip!

I found the most German food I could at a reaosnbaly price and it was delicous!

Day 2

The next day started with gorging myself on a large German buffet at the hotel:

There was good reason to be eating so much, as the 7 hours of train journey I’d planned for myself later overlapped lunch. Before then, I investigated the town with an early start!

The town was a beautifully preserved mediaeval art piece. It felt not dissimilar to parts of York in the UK, but with far less commercialisation, and far more of a focus on maintaining the exact town that existed there in the middle ages. As well as York, I also could not help but be reminded of one of my favourite boardgame obsessions, Carcassonne! The final culinary delight from Rothenburg was a local favourite - Schneeballs (a name which made me chuckle):

The schneeball was simply a shortbread that had been formed into a dense hyperbolic surface, and once baked, coated in a wide selection of toppings. I opted for the strawberry <3

The rest of the afternoon was spent on what was planned to be an up to 7 hour train journey with 4 transfers. I was really looking forward to this adventure, and had planned a lot of transfer time in to make sure things went smoothly. The journey was: Rothenburg ob der Tauber -> Steinach -> Augsburg Hbf -> Buchloe -> Kaufbeuren -> Füssen. The trains and connections actually went extremely well - and it only took 5-6 hours! I loved every second of experiencing the Deutsche Bahn. The stations were gigantic; the trains were clean, sometimes double-deckered, huge, and comfortable. I think I have to put DB over the UK’s National Rail, and am looking forward to any encounter with DB I may have in the future. Also, this dog was with me for a few hours which was nice :)

I arrived at Füssen in the dead of night and headed to my hostel. This was my first hostel experience, and it was quite anxiety inducing, mainly because of the lack of safe places to put the items I had on me, including L’s expensive camera! In reality, the sleep was fine, and my mild fear of hostels had been lessened.

Day 3

Day three had one of the biggest missions on the holiday - Neuschwanstein Castle. It’s a beautiful Bavarian castle, backed by the Alps and constructed at an 800 meter elevation. I did not know much about it, but I knew I had to get to it.

I worked out fairly quickly from a tourist office in Füssen that one cannot actually go into Neuschwanstein with a backpack, and since I was a solo traveller who had checked out of their accommodation, I was excluded from entering. However, there is a famous viewing bridge called Marienbrücke (Marie’s Bridge) which was free and accessible to all who can make the ascent.

I set off on the path out of Füssen and towards the castle, and caught my first glimpse early on:

At the end of the flat part of the walk to the castle there was an outpost called Hohenschwangau, filled with tourist buildings galore. I was able to collect some currywurst and brezel to fuel the ascent.

Climbing up to Marienbrücke was not the hardest walk, but I certainly broke a sweat, in part due to the good weather. I always prefer a cold climb! I loved the signage on the route though:

Once at the crowded Marienbrücke, situated over a beautiful alpine waterfall, one could quite easily see the majesty of Neuschwanstein. Here’s a couple of photos. I felt I needed to get a photo with the castle, but please excuse the expression on my face. It is not disgust at anything other than the sun burning into my retinas.

After spending time taking photos up there and talking to a nice group of Philadelphians, I made my way back down towards Füssen, stopping off for some hat browsing and ice cream on the way.

I had an evening train to catch, but some time to burn. The tourist office had also mentioned a brand new treetop bridge system in the south of Füssen, along the border of Austria. I was pretty sure I had the time to check it out before my train to Munich, so I took a lovely walk to the Austrian border where I was graced with beautiful alpine views all around.

I crossed the border by foot a few times, ping-ponging between the two countries above the treeline, before eventually getting on a bus back to Füssen train station. On the bus back I was able to read my first full “complex” sign!

“Eating and drinking is not allowed on the bus!!!!!!!!!!”. Amazing.

The start of the evening was spent aboard another train, this time to Munich. The train was peaceful and an older style, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Here are some photos I took to pass the time.

I arrived in Munich with the most amazing foggy weather, and found a fantastic schnitzel place just down the road from the station. It was packed with hipster Germans, must be good - right?

A second hostel hosted me that evening.

Day 4

Munich was planned out as the first day without any travel. A day of rest, perhaps. The day started with a free breakfast at the hostel, but no huge goal made the rest of the day a bit aimless. I walked around going to whatever looked interesting on Google Maps, or what caught my fancy while wandering. The first place which caught my fancy was Viktualienmarkt, an old city market with a wide variety of food. I could not help but see what German fish and chips was like. ;)

The chips were bang on, but alas, the fish could use some work.

Revitalised by British cuisine, I walked on to Neus Rathaus and Frauenkirche.

Both were quite underwhelming to me for some reason. Maybe it was my mood on the day, maybe the red brick of Frauenkirche was actually ugly - who knows. The highlight of the buildings for me was the cenotaph of Emperor Louis IV - it was a beautifully sculpted place of rest.

I think the vibe of the city was getting me down at this point - too many tourists; people weren’t as friendly as Füssen; and the city wasn’t too interesting to me. I went in search of nature, and found it in the form of the “English garden”. This was just a substantial city park, not dissimilar to Hyde Park in London, but there was one cool thing which really perked me up there. Surfing!!!

I could not believe that there were so many people just surfing the aggressive river that runs through the park. I must have stood and watched for 30 minutes. It must be so much fun for the people doing it!

Finally, dinner. At this point I was still feeling very down and was really just waiting to get back into train station and rail travel. I think I had decided that the adventure and mild stress of getting yourself to places on time by using larger systems out of your control was really my happy place. I had dinner in a famous beer hall named Hofbräuhaus am Platzl. I did not like it. The food was okay, although I think I ordered badly…

Knödel and Spätzle were not the play to make. Something about the combination of gelatinous pork belly, gelatinous Knödel, and dry Spätzle didn’t play well in my stomach and I could not finish for fear of it finishing me first.

A disappointing end to an underwhelming day in Munich, but turning up at the hostel before bedtime was a far better experience than turning up in the dead of night like some pathetically sleepy burglar. After watching a tourist who had something in their system get arrested by local police in the hostel lobby, I got a great night’s sleep.

Day 5

The primary objective of day 5 was to get from Munich to Vienna! This was on one direct train, which was very exciting for me and would take around 5 hours. For some reason I didn’t take many photos, but here is my platform at Munich Hauptbahnhof and some evidence of some Nintendo Switch games I played with a nice German guy for a few hours on the train. He wasn’t too good at Mario Kart but destroyed me on Smash :)

I was greeted at Vienna Hauptbahnhof by L. She had made a sign to greet me, which I could not stop laughing at for a number of minutes. Below is a picture of said sign, artfully composed with an image of me experiencing a Viennese water fountain. I was assured these were a big deal, and that Viennese water was the best around. It tasted alright.

We got a meal where I sampled the local variety of Fanta with confusion, and spent an hour hanging out in the city before getting an early and good night’s sleep.

Day 6

A packed day, thanks to L, who I was very excited was volunteering to show me around. Stephansdom in Stephansplatz was up first, along with the surrounding shopping area, which included a Spar built by the gods themselves. In the UK, Spar is a second-rate garage chain; in Austria, it seems to be where God makes nectar.

Then we spent some time at the University of Vienna where L needed to do some things, followed by a tour of Ringstraße. Ringstraße seemed to have every important building in Vienna, and as such, was very pretty!

We then went quite far out of the centre of Vienna, and took a bus to a viewing point over the city. It was lovely up there. We ate Viennese pastries while watching some local news crews shoot a segment about flooding.

We returned to the city centre to go to Wurstelprater, a huge amusement park which was celebrating Halloween that night to the full! Here I was introduced to Lángos, a much raved about food by L, and I was able to convince myself to go on a super fun water slide! I didn’t go on much else because of my own anxieties about rides. One day I’ll return though.

I returned to my hotel and enjoyed the evening, well fed and high on the absurdity of how I got there.

Day 7

Day 7 started without a friendly Austrian companion. She was meeting friends, and so I went adventuring myself a bit! Naschmarkt was the target, followed by finding a proper wiener schnitzel in Wien!!

Both of these were achieved without too many issues, although this was a public holiday in Austria, so the market was not open, aside from food spots!

I found myself a schnitzel at a nice place named Centimeter… it had some very strange decor, but the food and drink was delightful. I was greeted by L in the last 20 minutes of eating, which not only painted my face with a smile, but was just in time for her to help me finish off the plate!

In the evening, it had been a long-standing plan for me to go with L to a gathering of her friends to play boardgames and hang out! I was terrified, but I knew that if these were friends of L’s, then they can’t be that bad. The only issue is that they were all German speakers by nature, and would have to speak primarily in English for me to understand. To take my mind off things, L took me to the Danube for a little walk before attending this party, and the timing with the sunset was perfect.

I didn’t take any photos of the party, in an attempt to not put myself more out of place than I already was, but I was very happy to have felt so welcomed and at home in the group! I’m unsure if they liked me or found me a nuisance, but I hope for the former.

After a little chat with L into the night, I headed back to my warm hotel and prepared for the final sleep of the holiday.

Day 8

I woke up on this day with all of the following feelings. Sleepiness, sadness, and excitement. There was still time left to adventure Vienna a little bit on the way to the Hauptbahnhof, and so I did. I was to rendezvous with L there, and take a train with her to the airport where our separate planes would depart within a few hours of each other.

We boarded the (incorrect) double-decker train, ticking off another item on my list of dream things to do, before getting the final train to the airport. I was happy in the train, but dreading the end of this lovely German/Austria dream. Regardless, I got through it - the flight home was fun, and I felt surprisingly good by the time I got back to my flat in London.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the holiday was incredible. I learnt a lot about myself, what I like, who I am, what Germanic Europe is like, and so very very much more. I have no regrets about the holiday at all… well, maybe not going on the scary rides at Prater… but apart from that, nothing. Here’s the final photo L took of me as I happily sat on the second floor of a train for the first time in my life.

Thanks for the great stint in Austria, L.

The Print

Research on the Print

The print was only sold to me as “Archer Yoshiie and Cherry Blossoms”, however, with some searching, I think I’ve been able to pretty confidently identfy more details about the scene.

Firstly, Yoshiie (源 義家) was a samurai of the Minamoto clan, with the title of Most Valorous Warrior in the Land (天下第一武勇之士). As I understand it, he was a completely real person, whose fame has spawn numerous legends of dubious truth. The minamoto surname was an honourary one, bestowed upon knoble households by the emporer of Japan. The most notable role in Yoshiie’s career was in his role as Commander-in-Chief of the Defense of the North. This role, is perhaps best illustrated with the following map and description:

The Yamato Kingdom was an area of Japan rules by a group of noble families from roughly 200AD to roughly 600AD. The Emishi were any peoples who inhabited the areas North of Yamato. In the modern day and age, Ainu people are talked about as the original inhabitants of Hokkaido (the north island of Japan), and I believe there is some relationship between 20th century Ainu, and 200AD Emishi, but I’m afraid I don’t know that much more.

This is all related to Yoshiie’s military title though. “Commander-in-Chief of the Defense of the North” is refering to his duties to defend the kingdom of Yamato from northern invasions from the Emishi.

To bring this back to my research on the print, I noticed a good number of art pieces with Yoshiie as the subject which looked similar to mine. See below:

It appears that the gate in the print is the Nakoso (勿来, “Do not come here”) barrier. It was erected as a divider between the lands of Yamato and Emishi. The lands north of the were a terrifying place for Japanese of the time, however, the images depicted in all of the scene in this blog are an illustration of the following poem Yoshiie composed while at the gate:

How I wish to forbid the blowing wind,
At the Barrier of Nakoso, the ‘forbidding’ gate.
But the mountain cherry blossoms are falling,
Filling the rord, to narrow down the pass.

This is taken from this blog post, which cites The Founding of the Nation.

In this poem we see the beauty of the cherry blossoms easing Yoshiie and his retainer’s troubles around their dreaded journey to the north. Each of the prints above, including mine clearly depicts the three key elements of the scene. Yoshii on horseback, the barrier, and the hope-bringing sakura.

Close-ups

I like showing off up close shots of these prints. I think while I enjoy the overal composition of the print, and the colours used (especially the green of the hill), the carving skill is mesmerising to me.

Looking at Yoshiie’s armour, although I’m not the biggest fan of highly saturated dyes used in lots of Meji period prints, I think these colours just feel correct for such official armour. The gold trimmings give a great highlight, and the wave pattern on the base layer emits prestige.

The details of his face, and it’s expression, are also delightful to me. I find there’s something about faces around this era that are more realistic to many of those from previous centuries. I suppose that might be to expected. There is a serenity and purpose in his face, fitting for a hero.

Below is Yoshiie’s horse. Not exactly a main character, but I quite like the flows of the mane, and the printing technique used on the horse’s fur. I’m not entirely sure why this technique has been used. It looks like bubble-wrap or honeycomb, but in reality, I have no idea if it’s anything other than another woodblock.

The two characters behind Yoshiie are, presumably, retainers of some sort. I may enjoy these two just as much as the great warrior Yoshiie himself, potentially even more.

The faces for the two have such great emotion in them. I feel like these two are turly independant people, thinking their own thoughts, but both following in the footsteps of their master’s horse.

Their atire and weapons are also fantastic, especially their naginata spear, yumi longbow and what appears to be ori-eboshi.

Above and below are referneces for some of the retainer’s gear.

I’m not 100% that the headgear is an ori-eboshi, however, it’s the best I could fine.

One the whole I love this prints composition, carving, colours and figures. Happy purchase for a happy birthday.

I may comment on it’s condition defects at some point. But not right now.

The Print

I attended the University of York, UK and graduated from my programme during COVID-19. In fact, on the 30th Jabuary 2020, I woke up to the news that I lived directly opposite the first confirmed cases in the UK. leaving my graduation ceremony postponed until the virus was less prevelant.

Anyway, my time at York was fantastic, and my delayed graduation ceremony was a much anticipated day for me; having already completed a Masters degree and started working in industry since official graduation. I had two graduations that year, so one parent came to each to distrubute the finances of hawling people around the country on overly costly and busy trains. For York, it was my father’s turn, most likely due to the fact he adores the city.

As a graduation gift, my father suggested taking a look in York’s Japanese Print Shop before leaving the city. It’s been to the shop half a dozen times while studying in York, and was very happy about the suggestion. It’s an small shop which is strangely placed, being an outpost of Japanese woodblock prints above outside of the South of England. I can recommend it if you’re in York and are woddblock print inclined.

After much deliberation, and with a train departing within the hour, I eventually landed on the print shown at the top of the blog. It was a little over budget, so the cost was shared between my father and I, but I felt so drawn to it, I could not resist.

I think my eyes were first drawn in by the vibrant colours; intricate designs; and great print impressions of the courtesans’ kimono:

The choice of colours doesn’t feel like artifical dyes, although I do not know if they are or not. I’m mainly trying to convey that the kimono feel exciting and energising, but without the punchy or aggressive appearence of harsh artificial dyes. The designs scream wealth, as do the headdresses and postures of the subjects. The cheakily peeping girl from behind one of the kimono is also a great addition to the composition in my opinion. She brings real character!

Speaking of portraits and headdresses, here is the full set:

I am infatuated by both the detail of the carving skill shown along the women’s hairlines, which was most likely carved in to cherry wood; but also by the extravagant hair ornaments, known in Japanese (i think…) as Kanzashi (簪). Every single one of these faces just screams glamour to me.

The cherry on top is the mischievous creature hiding from the limelight in the corner of the print:

With the print decided, the purchase was made and I transported the print back home over the next four hours, preppared to find out every detail about it.

My First Foray Into Woodblock Print Research

So, I had acquired my first print after years of interest in woodblock prints. Now I wanted to know everything.

The first information was easy enough to find… it was sold to me with the print. The title, original artist, and reprint artist were all known. The latter two are:

Kitao Masanobu (Santō Kyōden) (北尾 政演, 1761–1816)

The original artist of the print, Kyōden was an Edo period (1603-1868) artist, writer and tabacco shop owner. His works of ukiyo-e seemed reasonably popular from what I could tell, but he perhaps had more success in his writing career. This could have been due to the Kansei Reforms which banned many publications that related in any way to Tokyo red light districts, such as this print.

Goyō Hashiguchi (橋口五葉, 1880-1921)

Goyō is best known for his own work in the shin-hanga movement of woddblock printing, including the work below. The movement took place in the early 20th century and focussed on revitalising traditional practices within woodblock print making; including division of labour between artists, carvers, printers and publishers. Goyō’s contribution to my print was that of creating the Edo period reprint.

The Unknowns, Unravelled

The main questions I wanted to know were:

1. What was the publisher seal, see in the bottom right of the print at the top of this blog.
2. Was this print part of a series? Japanese prints often are.
3. Are there other copies of my print out there?

Why did I have some of these question? Well, a first port of call for ukiyo-e research is Ukiyo-e Search. Through that site I was able to find these matching copies from various museum collections around the world:

Here we can see that I actually own half of a double page spread, and none of these prints have the same publisher seal as my print. For reference, the publisher seal in question is:

The size of the print is also somewhere between A5 and A4. This is could indicate that it is a page taken from a book, containing a series of prints.

In the end, the questions were answered by a kind stranger on the internet, via a Facebook group dedicated to ukiyo-e discussion. This strange claimed to have prints from the same book that my print had come from. He gave me the following information:

• Republished Series Title: Japanese Colour Prints in Ukiyo Style (浮世風俗やまと錦繪)
• Reprint Publisher Name: Association for The Publication of Pictures of Japanese Scenery (日本風俗図絵刊行会)

This was fantastic information, and allowed me to track down the exact print in Japan’s Nation Diet Library. On page 24 of this link, the following could be found:

At last! My exact version, seal and all. That puts the reprint at 1917-1918, in the second volume of the series. There don’t seem to be any other copies of my exact printing out there that I could find, which is a surprise, but not one I’m going to dwell on.

The Text

The very final question I wanted to answer was what the text in the printing said. For this I enlisted both strangers on Reddit, and my japanese tutor’s assistance. The cleaned up text is below:

Apparently the text is split in to two sections. The right hand side was translated by a chinese speaking stranger online, who identified it as a verse of a chinese poem, 長安道 (Road of Chang’an):

鳴鞭過酒肆 袨服遊倡門

By whipping a horse and passing a tavern, gorgeous clothing play in the gate of the brothel.

The second part was identified by another stranger, this time Japanese speaking. Despite the text being in kuzushiji (old, cursive Japanese which is almost impossible to read), they managed to track down an academic text which transcribed the print’s text, and then translated it to English themselves. The text can be found here, and the transcription and translation are:

香にはしれ けさのはつ花 さき初て 袖に袪に 匂ふ梅そも

As is evident from the fragrance, this morning the first blossom is beginning to bloom, and the plum scent is all over my sleeves.

Finally, from the same paper, we have an attribution for the text:

花扇詠書

Poem and calligraphy by Hanaōgi

It’s truly incredible the knowledge that can be shared over the internet!

The Print

I found this print while adventuring to Yokimono Japanese Christmas Market in early December of 2023. I’d seen the advert for the market on a flyer and was too tempted by the combination of an untravelled area of London and a Japanese market not to attend. I didn’t know what would be at the festival, but it was a pleasant surprise in every way.

One of the pop-up shops of note was that of The Japanese Gallery, Angel. I’d known of them for a while, but never gone to their shop, despite living reasonably to it. I took the plunge at this event and was rewarded with lots of beautiful prints to browse, and pleasant conversations with the staff. I had no real intention of splashing any cash upon entry, but was subdued by the gorgeous, saturated, winter prints and the passion of the staff.

This particular print was the one which really caught my eye, probably due to the snowy setting; incredibly saturdate reds; and calm atmosphere. I knew that it could not be an original printing due to the price being only ~£140 - the quality was as if it were printed the day before I arrived. No, this had to be a reproduction of some kind.

I enquired to one of the staff at the pop-up about the publisher, as a quick search online came up with nothing. That is when I first heard about Unsodo. I couldn’t quite catch the name at the time, but it was explained to me that this print was produced from the original carvers and blocks that the original imprints made from. They described the publisher as well trusted, and as authentic as a reprint can get. I thanked them for the information and said I’d take some time to walk around the rest of the market while I ponder whether to purchase the print.

While combatting my financial concerns (just because the print is cheap for it’s quality, doesn’t mean it’s cheap for me!), I was also furiously searching on my phone for any information I could find about this publishing company. I was confused why I could barely find anything if they were just a trusted and long-standing publishing house.

Regardless, upon my return to the pop-up shop, I was fed the information that this was the last of this print in their stock, and I finally gave in to purchasing it. While I was at it, I got a cheaper, smaller print too.

Uncovering Unsodo

Upon aquiring a new print, I take extreme joy in doing everything I can to track down every detail about the item. This time was no exception, however, my focus was unusually dominated by the publishing house, rather than the print itself. The print is relatively well-known, and it was not hard to find details on the artist, series, etc.

Initially, most of what I could find about Unsodo was from their website. It’s a painfully slow website with some questionable translations in to English. From their about page:

Unsodo was founded in Kyoto in 1891 as an art book publisher.The only publisher in Japan to publish handrail woodblock books,

We make various art books and crafts by utilizing the technology.

The only other sources of information on the company that I could find was archaic blog posts and obscure articles. I’ll go over some.

Ukiyo-e Gallery have a great blog post on the seals of Unsodo. They, along with the help of my Japanese tutor, allowed me to decypher the following seals on my print:

I believe “han” means “printing blocks” or “edition”, and the blog hints that the carver’s full name could be Nagashima Michio. I was not able to find any information on printer.

I also managed to find an article in the british library that goes in to the publisher’s history in glorious detail. It’s titled Unsōdō and the evolution of design book publishing in Japan. The article covers Unsodo’s transision from Kimono design publisher to print publisher, as well as providing insight as to the etymology of the company’s name.

Briefly, Unsodo (芸艸堂) contains a combination of the kanji 芸艸 (unsō), meaning Rue, and 堂 (dō), a suffix used to indicate a building. The use of rue in the name is due to its use in traditional Japanese bookmark production, as a way to deter pests from damaging books.

My First Wikipedia article

Having convinced myself of Unsodo’s authenticity, I wanted to help others find quick information about them in English. I’d only ever made very minor edits to Wikipedia articles before, but I thought submitting a brand new article for Unsodo could be the way to go!

I went about reading Wikipedia’s helpful guide on submitting one’s first article, and thought it sounded reasonably simple in terms of process - I’d just need to spend a lot of time making sure I abide by the many guidlines for style, citing, etc.

Eventually, I set aside a day to write the article. The time it took was probably exasperated by the nerves of getting something wrong, but it took about half a day overall. Once finished, it entered the Articles for Creation review pool. I didn’t have any issues with the process, and after a week of checking back every day, someone had read and approved my article! It was a great feeling, and the article can be found here! This also came with the unexpected benefit of Google generating a knowledge panel which uses my words for people who search Unsodo:

Glorious.