Brief Idea of My Final Project

For my final project, glass art in Edo era, I focus on glass beads called tonbo-dama in Edo era.

WHAT IS TONBO-DAMA!?!? (O_O) {what~??〕

Tonbo-dama is a glass bead in Japan. In Edo era, Japanese people likened the beautiful glass beads to eyes of a dragonfly which is called tonbo in Japanese. Tonbo-dama literally means a ball of dragonfly and in this case, the ball indicates eye.

An Example of Edo-tonbo

People in Edo loved the little but beautiful glass beads for their daily accessories. Tonbo-dama which became popular among Edo people is called Edo-tonbo.

obi-dome

Kanzashi

WHY I CHOSE IT FOR MY PROJECT

In fact, I am a big fan of tonbo-dama. Although tonbo-dama art is not so famous among not only foreigners but also many Japanese people, I think it has a lot of aspects of Japanese beauty.

When I started to research, I soon found that tonbo-dama has a long history and people especially in later Edo and Meiji era loved it. Since glass arts was not yet familiar with many Japanese at that time, tonbo-dama seemed to be exotic and really beautiful.

Tonbo-dama is not outstanding among other Japanese arts such as kimono, ukiyo-e, etc...but I think there is a strong link between tonbo-dama and a certain aesthetic idea which many Japanese have and that is why tonbo-dama is loved still now.

OUTLINES

My outlines are;

1. Histories - history of world glass beads and history of tonbo-dama.

2. About tonbo-dama in Edo era - its special features and how people used tonbo-dama.

3. The connection between tonbo-dama and Japanese beauty - reasons why tonbo-dama was so attractive to people in Edo.

(I may also mention the connection with Buddhist art.)

I am eventually going to lead the tonbo-dama art to one of the Japanese aesthetic idea called iki (粋). Iki describes a person, behavior, or situation which is sophisticated and familiarized with many things.... (I should find a better definition...)

I mainly will write tonbo-dama in Edo era but proberbly extend the subject to Meiji era also.