When my subconscious makes my author heart happy
I really want my stories to intertwine with real life and this one little thing made my author heart soar.
Japanese art has been my favourite for a long time. I’ve always found them more intriguing than western pieces, especially when you can see brush marks. Ink pieces even in their monotone shades draw me in and I find myself staring at even the smallest of colour fades. During my time at university (doing Fine Art) I’d found the work of the Buddhist artist Sesshu Toyo and first fell in love with the landscape piece 破墨山水図 Haboku-sansui (1495)
I often returned to this piece as inspiration for my own work, alongside others with the same kind of brushwork. (Funnily enough I also went on to do the opposite and look at much more modern Japanese art for another project which was almost the complete opposite of this).
Despite my love of brushwork, and not being a fan of blockier colours, once I found ukiyo-e I was hooked. I prefer pieces without people, preferring the landscapes and natural world, but there’s something about them I can’t help but be drawn in by. So it’s probably no wonder that Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa is my favourite piece of art ever. I’ve seen it hundreds of times now, I have it as embroidery, a puzzle, a bottle design, note book covers, a fan… and I still can’t get enough of it.
And yet I was surprised when I twigged it had subconsciously inspired a story, so much in fact, I could place it in my world as I’m writing it.
Broken Waves tells of the god Susanoo creating a tsunami that crashes against the shore, a piece that was inspired by the folklore of his ara-mitama (essentially part of his soul) not behaving. Being the god of seas, it was only natural for me to envision him throwing waves around, and it even went further to a full tsunami (although that wasn’t planned). And when I later began to make a map of where each story is located in Japan, I had to figure out where Broken Waves was. All I had really mentioned was the coast lines so I was scanning down Japan in Google Maps for a good area until it hit me. I also mentioned a mountain in my story. Now there are many mountains in Japan, but many are more inland. Except one.
Now I had a mountain by the sea, plenty of shoreline to choose from, and Kanagawa right there. And what’s my favourite piece called? The Great Wave off Kanagawa. The Sagami Bay is exactly where the art piece is located.
Coincidence? (I think not!)
The subconscious is a great thing, picking up all these details in daily life, and appearing where you never expect. I’m very sure mine helped to influence my story with my favourite art piece and I love it all the more for that. In turn this has shaped another story which I am currently editing, placed right after Broken Waves and will mention Suruga Bay, which is where I picked for my story location in the end.
I really want my stories to intertwine with real life and this one little thing made my author heart soar. Because now, if I was to write past the Muromachi period, I could easily have my own Hokusai, creating woodblocks based off the events in Broken Waves.
I’m hoping there will be more of these events in future, as I find some of my best ideas come out of my subconscious… but also some of my weirdest ideas too. And now I am sharing them all with you, my readers.
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