The Garden Of Evening Mists
is a book written by an author from Penang about a girl from Penang and a Japanese gardener during the occupation and emergency. Naturally, the Penang element got me very intrigued. The characters are fiction but the intricate details of what our country had to go through during that period in time was anything but. The cruelty of the Japanese soldiers was insurmountable. But there are always two sides to a coin, two sides to every story. I couldn't help feeling sorry for them too...
[SPOILER ALERT]
That chapter about Tatsuji and his lover was so heartbreaking. It affected me and I was in tears. No one wins in war...
Absolutely no one...
Reading about the ancient art of Japanese zen gardens and the correlation between an Ukiyo-e artist and a horoshi got me fantasising about a horimono on my skin like Yun Ling's and delicate Japanese woodblock prints on paper lanterns.
I love a book that leaves me curious and wanting to know more. It is like what Holden Caulfield said, "What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though."
Would love to have a chat with #TanTwanEng about Japanese gardens and Kyudo.
One could hope, right? ;)
#GardenOfEveningMists #books #penang #cameronhighlands #ukiyoe #horimono #horoshi #irezumi #ulatbuku #uniqlolifewear #uniqlomy
