Edutainment > Kaiju Manga (7) - Woodpecker Venus

Kaiju Manga Woodpecker Venus, 2007
copyright Tom Kristensen

Tom Kristensen, born 1962, is a young artist from Australia who works in the tradition of Japanese woodblock printmaking. On this page, he writes about his latest series "Kaiju Manga".

Here is the original text written by Tom Kristensen. Text and images are copyright protected and may not be used or distributed for other than private use without the prior consignment of the author/artist.

Woodpecker Venus - No. 7

Kaiju Manga 7 Woodpecker Venus

The woodpecker spends a lifetime tapping and chiselling into trees, chasing for food under the bark and making cavities big enough to nest inside. The busy little bird is found throughout the world and there are more than 180 different species. The head of the woodpecker is highly adapted to the incessant impact of hammering into timber. Apart from a pointed beak and a super-long tongue, the woodpecker has a thick skull and a relatively small brain. It is able to absorb the shock of each blow by momentarily clenching its mandibular muscles.

Japan has its own woodpeckers with three endemic subspecies of Picus awokera, known as kitsutsuki. In 1930 a group of sosaku hanga artists began publishing a magazine of woodblock art under the Kitsutsuki banner. The woodpecker was again used as a mascot for woodblock artists when Un'ichi Hiratsuka formed Kitsutsuki-kai, the Woodpecker Society, and in 1942 the group began publishing Kitsutsuki hangashu, the Woodpecker print collection.

Woody Woodpecker

Woody Woodpecker the cartoon character made his debut in the film Knock Knock in 1940. In contrast to his industrious Japanese cousins, this was a bird of another feather, brash and loud, if not demented and slightly sadistic. His raucous laugh and his appetite for destruction made Woody a popular character with the US armed forces during WWII. With a busted beak and a smoking cigar, his red head was soon decorating the barracks and the nosecones of bombers. After the war Woody settled down but he remains an emblem of the American fighting spirit.

Tom Kristensen
March 2007

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The artist was first discovered by Eric van den Ing, co-author of a classic ukiyo-e book "Beauty and Violence" and owner of Saru Gallery. After Eric van den Ing had placed Tom's woodblock prints on his online gallery, a few days later a collector had bought the whole set. Mr. van den Ing seems to have a "magic hand" for new artists. He was the first to introduce Paul Binnie in 2000 to a larger online community of friends of Japanese prints.

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