JoeBob wrote:Arigato gozaimasu. (Thank you very much). You have great abs. Very sexy.
Just a note of authenticity, though. Japanese women committed seppuku with a stab to the heart. Not criticizing, though I'd love to see that as a well.
Yes, Joe Bob I am aware of the fact that Samaurai matrons, that is mature married women, either stabbed themselves in the heart or slit their throats.
But this particular set of pictures is from the final scene of "Madama Butterfly", an Opera by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini.
He didn't know that little fact so he called for Butterfly to gut herself.
It is written into the score as such and I place the exact stab slice and withdrawal of the blade where Puccini dictates in his score.
The music is so drawn out that if you commit seppuku the "female" way:
Legs bound together, knife to the heart or a throat slit
It just doesn't work with the drama written into the music.
Also it is not very authentic for me with my Mediterranean face to pretend to be Japanese, but there again, this is Italian Opera. It's supposed to be over the top, and realism is low on the list of desires.
I have also read that young Japanese maidens were from time to time called upon to commit a form of hara kiri specifically as a sexual-fertility act. A self sacrifice to the gods.
This doesn't have much to do with Seppuku as an act of honor, but the belly slicing would have been the same. Butterfly is only 18 at the time she commits suicide.
Above all however is the fact that Butterfly's choice to commit seppuku in the male fashion is symbolic of the fact that the American sailor who abandoned her and now returns to take her child from her as well is no man. Butterfly's blind love for this man has turned to hate.
He has robbed her of her honor so she says "You are not a man, but I am. See what you have done to me!!"
That is how I play the scene and rationalize the slight error in ritual made by Puccini.
More pictures to come.
Glad you are all enjoying these.
Still working on that cloning device Peter
Baci
I think it goes without saying but I'll say it anyway: your work is art, plain and simple.
