tea time

A Ukrainian postcrosser now living in Washington made this card from photos she took at a reunion with an old school mate. She was drinking tea and the old friend wine. I like the photos and even more the way she used them. She, too, is a writer and photographer.

bird people

A postcrosser from Taiwan sent this offbeat card, from a gallery exhibition this March in Taipei.

magical mauritius

How exciting to get a card from Mauritius! This one, from a postcrosser who describes the country as a "confetti of an island lost in the azure of the Indian Ocean", shows the remarkable seven-colored dunes (red, brown, violet, green, blue, purple, and yellow) dunes of Chamarel. The sender notes that Mark Twain, who visited Mauritius in 1898, likened it to paradise. Mauritius and the US have had diplomatic relations since 1794. The island country was once the home of the now-extinct dodo bird.

jade maiden peak of wuyi

Any landscape that evokes a Chinese ink painting is OK with me. This card, of Jade Maiden Peak in Wuyi, is from a Chinese postcrosser.

last of the goze

These are the last of the postcards in the goze series by Saito Shinichi. My thanks to Ozawa Yasuko for prompting me to rediscover these cards and to think again about the goze.

delly, delly

Sandy Sapienza sent this postcard of a popular deli in Annapolis, Maryland. It must be a hit with the Naval Academy, which is of course located there.

more goze by saito shinichi

Two more postcards showing paintings of goze by Saito Shinichi. The one at bottom shows goze, who were often organized into guild-like groups, sitting around a kotatsu, a traditional kind of warmer still used in Japan. The one at top expresses the pathos of the traveling musicians' lives.

singapore chinese opera

A postcrosser from Singapore sent this postcard commemorating the 10th anniversary, in 2006, of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra. He has been a member of the orchestray for several years but did not in what role.

the goze of saito shinichi

Ozawa Yasuko's card (below) sent me to my goze file, where I discovered, much to my surprise, a collection of postcards from an exhibition by Saito Shinichi. I thought that I had sent all of these postcards off to friends years ago, but in fact had saved a set for myself. Saito heard stories about goze while traveling around Japan and, like others of us, became fascinated. He became quite famous for his oil paintings (he used oil, he told me, because he wanted the paintings to last for hundreds of years) of the women and the hard lives that they led. The card at top shows a lone goze in snow country, the part of Japan where they were most often found. The one below shows goze performing at a local festival.

cat goze by ozawa yasuko

This postcard arrived on Saturday from old friend and doll artist Ozawa Yasuko. It shows one of her signature dolls, a cat in the guise of a goze, one of the itinerant blind female musicians, who were active for centuries in Japan. I first saw Ozawa's work when I was living in Tokyo and was mesmerized by it. I ended up going to Kyoto to interview her for several magazines. It was only when we met that I discovered the goze connection. I had recently seen Mizukami Tsutomu's play, Hanare goze Orin, about an outcast goze and was starting to do research on the women, which eventually led to my interviewing Kobayashi Haru, the last active goze, who died in 2005 at age 105. At that first meeting with Ozawa, we also discovered a mutual interest in Tono and its famed legends. At the time, she gave me a tip about where to stay should I ever visit the highland town in Iwate. Years later, I did go to Tono and used her tip, which turned out to be life-changing.

castel sant 'angelo

An American postcrosser living in Rome sent this castle near St. Peter's. She wrote that on summer evenings a street carnival takes place around the castle, with stands selling food and drink, vendors hawking goods, and street performers of all kinds.

suleymaniye

A young Turkish postcrosser sent this view of the austerely beautiful interior of the mosque Suleymaniye. One of Istanbul's main attractions, the mosque sits atop one of the city's hills.

street rouen

This card is from an aspiring writer who notes that Rouen is where Joan of Arc was infamously burned alive, though there is nothing of that turbulent, gruesome history here. Instead, this card, like the Prague one below, has people in it. I like cards showing people out and about in their daily lives.

prague snow

This hazy view of snow on the famed Charles Bridge in Prague came from a Czech postcrosser. This week's snow here has pretty much disappeared, but it is still quite chilly.

suzhou garden

For more than a thousand years, Suzhou has been known for its classical gardens. This card, from a Chinese postcrosser, shows a bit of one.

john storrs

The always interesting Grey Art Gallery at New York University in New York City is holding a show of the machine-like sculptures of modernist John Storrs. The show runs from April 12 to July 9.

from florida

Two from Priscilla, who has been in Florida for a week.

portrait of gustave geffroy

A friend sent this postcard of a portrait by Cezanne of Gustave Geffroy, a journalist, art critic, and writer, who was one of the first to recognize Cezanne's talent. The artist perhaps 'repaid' him with this detailed portrait of a writer in his element.

folk pottery

These sprightly examples of Ukrainian folk pottery, made by Havrylo and Yavdokha Poshyvailo, are in the Museum of Ukrainian Folk and Decorative Art. The card came from a Ukrainian postcrosser who was enjoying the coming of spring.

martta wendelin

Here's a sweet bit of sanity from a Finnish postcrosser. The card is by fab Finnish illustrator Martta Wendelin (1893-1986).