mythology

The most satisfying collections are sometimes the most complicated, complex ones.

My growing collection of Yanoman’s ‘Demon’s Chronicle’ mini-figures is certainly the most involved collection that I have. Not only does each subsequent set need to be imported from poorly-translated overseas websites (since I haven’t found any US shops that stock these, due to their very limited appeal), but each and every surreal, creepy character in each set is so obscure and mysterious that I feel the need to hunt down the origin of each and every one – which often involves translating things both from Japanese and Latin, with a whole lot of help from Google Translate and my unending supply of patience.

Did you know that there’s an actual, biblical angel that’s just a ball of wings? Well, there is – and Yanoman made a mini-figure of it. While their Demon’s Chronicle sets vacillate between mythology, the Bible and folklore, they’re always full of really unique, tiny sculptures, which is the real selling point for me.

This most recent set, Exercitus Caelestis, when translated loosely from the Latin, revolves around the idea of ‘Heavenly Armies’. From what I can tell, much of the set deals with creatures and people that were servants and second-in-command to various deities and demons. There are ten figures total, each one being presented in both painted and ‘unpainted’, beige colors, as well as an 11th mystery figure. Every figure comes with a descriptive card – written in Japanese. I ordered a case from Hong Kong, and unfortunately, due to a manufacturing error, I was stuck with a few pieces that didn’t fit together correctly, and one beat up figure that was shoved into a box with a completely incorrect card. This kind of quality control issue is really unusual, and the first batch of problems I’ve had since I started collecting these.

This first figure is a four-headed, angelic creature – having the heads of a human, a lion, a bull and a bird. According to a loose translation, he’s of the genus ‘Cherubim Cherubim’, and his description talks about ‘tanks of the sky with shining wheels’. This creature is mentioned in ‘The Chronicles Akira Hazime’, apparently, though the only coherent website I can find assigns that name to a Japanese erotic model, and a passing reference to the ‘million Emperor calendar’. So, that particular search has hit a premature dead end. All I’m left with is a four-headed freakout angel.

On the other hand, this second angel translates to ‘The Archangel Gabriel’, the biblical messenger of God, and an easy guy to find out a lot about in English.

The cherub on the two-headed dragon isn’t quite so straightforward. Translated from the Japanese, this guy is literally ‘Tatsuko varakku’, from ‘The Chronicles Antinora’, and a mention of the word ’setsuzou’, which translates to ’snow sculpture’. There’s also mention of the word ‘Acheron’, which is a river in Greece once believed to flow into the underworld. A little more digging (okay, a few more hours’ worth), and I figured out that ‘Antinora’ was only a phonetic translation, and I should have been looking for ‘Antenora’ – a part of the river to Hades.

So, who’s the baby? Probably something evil, but honestly, it’s another search that’s come up empty.

The cat playing the French horn is a little more penetrable, translating to ‘Cat Bireto no Tsukaima’, or ‘the cat familiar of Bireto’. Now, if ‘BERUZEBURU’ is a phonetic translation of ‘Baelzebub’ and ‘BERIARU’ is probably Belial, one can assume that the phonetic ‘Bireto’ is either ‘Beleth’ or ‘Berith’, both dukes of hell. Because of the limitations of the Japanese language in expressing English sounds, either option is equally likely. Unfortunately, I can’t find any relationship between wither of them and a musical cat, so my search temporarily comes to an end.

Days later, and toggling between Google Translate and Babelfish, I still only have a superficial understanding of these things in my collection. And I kinda like that mystery. I don’t know what this stuff is, I don’t know when or if any more are going to come out, I don’t know where I’ll buy them – but I know that I like these surreal little vignettes. Bring on lucky part XIII!

Every spring we have a wonderful treat as we look out our kitchen window. We love birds and sometimes lament the cost of buying the seed, the continuous chore of filling up the feeders in the cold Wisconsin winters, and putting suet into the ‘cage’ with frozen fingers. But we do get some special rewards for our endeavors! We have an incredible visitor – an indigo bunting! Vibrant blue, small and cheerful, he makes us smile and we always vie for which of us will spot him first. He is our ‘bluebird of happiness’, you might say!

But long before he came along, I have loved blue birds. I have them in the kitchen, on old china pieces, on salt and pepper shakers, a creamer, a vase, and even a sentimental plate. My most recent treasure is a German, lustre canister set that is just covered with them! (This was a gift from dear hubby for our anniversary.)

As I glanced around at them this weekend, I realized they needed to be cleaned for anticipated guests and family. (Kitchen items do tend to get a bit ‘greasy’, even though I am constantly teased for not cooking a lot.) I began to wonder just why we call them ‘bluebirds of happiness’ and if this was a fairly new thought process. So, using one of my favorite tools, I “Googled” those words “Blue Bird of Happiness” and ‘voila’, I received the requested information and learned a lot.

It turns out that to many Native American tribes, the bluebird was sacred. According to the Cochiti tribe, the firstborn son of Sun was named Bluebird. The Navajo hold the Mountain Bluebird to be a great spirit in animal form and associate it with the rising sun. Their Bluebird song is still used in social settings and performed in the 9-day Ye’iibicheii Winter Nightway Ceremony.

I also learned that a popular song by Jan Peerce and Art Mooney and his orchestra called “Bluebird of Happiness” was recorded in 1948 and introduced at the Radio City Music Hall. There was also a stage play called “The Blue Bird” by Maurice Maeterlick in 1908. It was made into several films throughout the 20^th century, including the 1940 original starring Shirley Temple.

But the mythology of the bluebird actually goes back a lot farther. For example, in Europe, a noted fairy tale is called “L’Oiseau Bleu” (The Blue Bird) by Madame d’Aulnoy (1650-1705) and it seems to be the root of modern accounts of bluebird symbology and myth. In this tale, King Charming is transformed into a bluebird, who is the love interest of the younger princess Fiordelisa and aids her through her trials.

In magical symbology, bluebirds are used to represent confidence in the positive aspect and egotism in the negative. A dead bluebird is a symbol of disillusionment, or the loss of innocence, and of transformation from the younger and naïve to the older and wiser.

Indigenous cultures across the globe hold similar beliefs. It is the most universally accepted symbol of cheerfulness, happiness, prosperity, hearth and home, good health, new births, and the renewal of spring! Virtually any positive sentiments may be attached to the bluebird.

So I am not alone in my thinking. I will wear my bird pins and earrings regularly, display my blue birds around the house and whistle a cheerful song! How big is your bluebird collection?

My most recent collecting obsession comes direct from Japan, and by ‘direct from Japan’, I don’t mean ‘created in Japan and sold here in the US’. I mean paying ridiculous EMS shipping fees to get dusty boxes imported from Asia and hoping for the best.

I’m a big fan of miniature toys. If I can find a superhero or diorama or otherwise culturally significant thing in miniature, it’s probably flanking my computer at some point. An army of robots from all manner of places gathers below my monitor, while other significant portions of space are occupied by the deadly Cartoon Warrior Women armada. The battle shall be glorious, and probably have too many upskirt-underwear shots.

So when I came across a little thing called Demon’s Chronicle on Toyzz.com, I thought that they’d be fun. Little sculptural figures from world mythology, gracefully placed atop pillars, no more than 3.5 inches tall. I bought a half dozen boxes of the figures from them. Since they’re blind-packaged, you never know exactly what you’re going to get. It could be any one of the things pictured on the box (if there’s anything pictured on the box at all), or it could be something rare and mysterious that hasn’t been spoken of before.

What I ordered was the 6th incarnation of the Demon’s Chronicle series by Yanoman. I have no idea where demons play into this line of figures, but this set was a series of twelve eerie sculptures interpreting the typical signs of the zodiac. Each figure comes in two paint schemes – full color and a monochrome beige. In addition to that, there happens to be a bizarre Cthulhu-like guy surrounded by an albino serpent and mist, which you’ll pull from a box if you’re lucky, like me. My luck in toys, though, completely balances out the complete disaster that is the rest of my life. I’m wondering where I can go to trade some of this toy-luck in. You know, never find that rare Hydro-Man action figure, but not have my soul crushed. I think that’s a pretty fair trade.

Demon’s Chronicle figures come in bags of tiny, tiny pieces that need to be assembled, completely without instructions and only a small image to guide you. You fit round pegs into round holes, and L-shaped holes fill up with L-shaped pegs until you have a beautiful little figure. It’s not without difficulty, but that’s half of the fun. Parts fall off as you’re forcing others on, something flies into your eye, a whole herd of cows in Wisconsin suddenly vanishes. It’s all worth it.

Toyzz.com, which is based in the US, quickly sold out of the figures, and I was forced to search the wide world over for more pieces. They were inspiring, and they were beautiful, and some of ‘em were naked ladies! The acceptance of nudity into ‘toys’ is another fascinating part of Asian culture, but that’s a discussion for another day.

I found these figures available in only one place – Hobby Link Japan. And they were only available by the case. Could I possibly be crazy enough to import whole cases of toys? I managed to justify the expense by purchasing some toys for my niece’s birthday in the same order, because if you’re going to be a creature of avarice, you need to take countermeasures of generosity so that your soul doesn’t immediately blacken, shrivel up and find its way into blocking one of your more vital arteries.

Other series of Demon’s Chronicle figures include a set of Egyptian mythology, angels and an early version of Santa Claus, a unicorn with a penchant for trumpets, dragons and fairies. Santa, curiously, is the mystery figure in a series that also contains a figure that can only be Satan riding a serpent. You can see a full gallery of the figures on the Yanoman website, even though there’s no English translation. The paint quality and sculpting detail are excellent for things of this size, but all of that pales in comparison to the imagination that’s gone into these figures. I’ve set up a display of the ones I’ve managed to acquire right in front of where I paint, because they instantly became creative talismans to occasionally glance at and remember what’s possible.

And that’s your daily slice of something that you probably didn’t know about before.