Year of the Monkey Postcards

About a week ago Amy at Aqua Velvet posted some remarkable Japanese Postcards from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Here are more Japanese postcards from the same collection, all related to the Year of the Monkey ( ).


Monkey Trainer from Towa shinpo, Ogawa Usen, 1908

"Born 2004, 1992, 1980, 1968, 1956, 1944, 1932, 1920, 1908. People born in the year of the Monkey are the erratic geniuses of the Zodiac cycle. They are clever and skillful in grand-scale operations and are smart when making financial deals. They are inventive, original and are able to solve the most difficult problems with ease." -Namiko Abe, about.com


The Monkey in Morning Suit of New Year's cards, unknown artist, 1932


The Monkey Celebrating with Ozoni of New Year's cards, unknown artist, 1932


The Monkey's Baseball of New Year's cards, unknown artist, 1932


The Monkey's Rugby of New Year's cards, unknown artist, 1932


The Monkey Pounding Rice (Osaru no mochitsuki) of New Year's cards, unknown artist, 1932


The Monkey's Playing Ball (Osaru no hogan nage) of New Year's cards, unknown artist, 1932


Monkey and Crab, Takahashi Haruka, 1932


Three Monkeys with Spade Shape Motifs, Takahashi Haruka, 1932


Monkey in the Guise of a Shinto Priest, Takahashi Haruka, 1932


Takahashi Haruka, 1932


Takahashi Haruka, 1932


Takahashi Haruka, 1932


Takahashi Haruka, 1932


Takahashi Haruka, 1932 [?]


Three Monkeys: See no Evil, Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil, Takahashi Haruka, 1932

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Boston's Museum of Fine Arts Japanese Postcards Collection [link]
Information about the Year of the Monkey in the Japanese Zodiac @ about [link]

1895 Calendrier Magique Lithographs

Colored Lithographs by Manuel Orazi. A rare piece of occultist ephemera, printed in an edition of 777 copies to commemorate magic for the coming year of 1896. Each double page spread mimics the Christian calendar in some respect (name days, iconography). The document is at once a spoof and an attempt to chart the year of magic. Its surviving interest resides in the extravagant and compelling illustrations, especially the full-page right hand plates, by Manuel Orazi (from the Fantastic in Art & Fiction collection from Cornell University) This red text page is also the colophon / naked hag with book open in lap, sitting on stool, within circle set with candles; gold flames; pentagram, star of David. owl carrying keys; bat carrying seal diagram of solar system; listing of dates for days of the week; chant / naked women at Sabbat; satan as winged anthropomorphous goat sun with cloud interior indicating cardinal directions; charts; spells / bearded man holding up open book; death gazing down; naked woman in foreground chart of days of week; pentagram with broken circle; le maudit blaspheme / dark angel, naked; moon and skyline star of David; medieval frieze: procession of priests and nobility; tarot card The World / skeleton of king in coffin; single candle; crowns, sword, staffs, orb tree; chalises; frog; bird; love potion / exhibitionist bat-winged woman; necromancer gazing, gesturing into glowing cauldron, with familiar strutting on his head poem; frog / naked woman in arms of dark man; feminine demons coming from smoke of extinguished candle; creatures of the night laboratory instruments; poem / Alchimist lying on floor of his laboratory, black cat at his feet chalice on table with legs, ears / woman lying prone on table with chalice on back; men in dark robes around her; satan as goat charts; poem / demon rolling past moon; procession of dark-robed people into cemetary; abracadabra charts, bound demon / entranced naked woman crouched down looking upon embers of crosses burning within a circle, a demon is just visible in the smoke calendar chart; spell / naked old man sitting, creating voodoo doll; bird-like demon silhouetted by moon; hand gripping sword; row of dolls; heart pierced by nails, knife poem ‘le Héraut’; calendar chart; star diagram with suns at points, labeled: l’être est, réalité, justice, raison, vérité / man in ecclesiastical garb, bearing flag with crosses, holds forth an opened message with broken seal; figures tied to stakes and village rooftops in background chart or various good end evil spirits; chart of planetary influences upon hours of the days of the week; lions; owl; snake; bird food / chart of the good and bad spirits/influences that can be magically used on the different days of the week -

see the entire Fantastic in Art & Fiction collection [here]