Sometimes the most heartfelt and colorful art is tucked away in trinkets.
Take for example in Japan the manga.
Originally, it was just a derisory image, an amusing sketch, as the etymology of the word indicates.
Another example is the ukiyo-e woodblock print.
Produced in quantity, inexpensive and very popular, it reflected the impermanence of all things.
In the Edo period (1603-1868), the middle or wealthy classes bought them without special attention, simply and temporarily.
As today we give up a few euros for a calendar of the year, a postcard on a tourist site or a candy apple at the fair.
The same goes for the flat fans, made of bamboo and paper, which the Guimet Museum in Paris is currently exhibiting.
These everyday accessories, banal objects piled up in shop fronts or sold for the equivalent of a bowl of noodles by some peddler, acquired at the entrance to a show, during a ritual, a party, 'a…
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