Sake Barrels

Following my trip to Japan two years ago, ive had an interest in the graphics of sake barrels. They are covered with a woven dry straw sheet called Komo in order to avoid sunburn and damp and you can often find Sake barrels at Japanese shrines. Monks offer sake to the gods, thanking them for a good harvest. There are traditional fonts especially used for Sake, called “Hige-Moji” (Hige is a whisker. Moji is an alphabet character). Hige-Moji is characterised by swooshy tails and often some parts are cracked. Below are some images i took while in Japan. The first is from Meji-Jingu shrine in Harajuku. The second is details from them and i have played around with them on the computer. My Japanese friend told me that the barrel that has a glowing green label in the middle row on the left is called 'Onikoroshi' which means demon killer in Japanese, suggesting that it is so strong that it could kill a demon!





Following are some images that people have taken and posted on Flickr that i think are interesting.

1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.