The thoughts behind our Geisha posters
(The Geisha originals. Ida creates her paintings on canvas, after which they are photographed for posters. Here ' Hungry Geisha ' and ' Klaphat ')
What is a Geisha?
Several of our popular posters feature a Geisha as a motif, and this often raises the question of what a Geisha really is. In Japan, a Geisha is considered to be a type of 'professional hostess', who traditionally provides entertainment, dancing and conversation in expensive teahouses. It is a culture-historical Japanese woman who devotes her entire life to educating and perfecting herself in various traditional Japanese arts.
If you ask the dictionary, a Geisha means: ''One who performs arts''. It comes from the characters芸(gei) and 者(sha), which mean "art" and "person" respectively. The geishas are known for their characteristic white makeup, large updo hair and incredibly beautiful kimonos. On our travels to Japan we have met women who dress like the beautiful Geishas, which sparked a lot of creative thinking about how these could be portrayed in a painting.
Do you dream of a 'Hungry Geisha' at your home? See our suggestions for how the poster can be included in a picture wall in this article .
( Hungry Geisha and Sticks and Scoops )
The thoughts behind 'Hungry Geisha', 'Klaphat' and 'Sticks and Scoops'
It all started with the painting 'Hungry Geisha', where we wanted to combine Japan and Denmark, as it symbolizes us as people. A Geisha is one of the most Japanese things we could think of, which is why it should undoubtedly be included in the motif. In addition, the geishas are incredibly beautiful and aesthetic in their expression, which made it interesting to explore purely picturesquely. In the hope of letting Denmark and Japan meet each other, we chose to put a geisha in combination with something as classic as a roasted hot dog ''with everything''. A cultural contrast, you could call it.
Find tips and tricks on how to combine your posters with colored picture frames in this article .
( Slaphat and the Hungry Geisha)
The painting 'Klaphat' similarly combines these 'cultural contrasts', as we again tried to take two familiar things from each culture. The individual and calm geisha has been joined by a characteristic flapper hat with red/white colors. After the publication of the two aforementioned paintings, we noticed a growing interest in the idea of eating food with chopsticks, which is not normally suitable for eating with chopsticks. People thought it was a funny idea - and it led to our third geisha in the series; 'Sticks and Scoops'. We chose to make one more eating geisha - this time wearing sunglasses and a large, melting ice cream. Both elements that you would hardly see a geisha with.