Umi-Bozu - Japanese sea monster
Umi-bozu [海坊主], is a Japanese monster that rises out of sea with large, round head, resembling the shaved head of a Buddhist monks. Umi means sea and Bozu means a monk with a shaven head.
My alien friend who lives up the hill from me, Patrick Gannon, the cut-paper artist extraordinaire today posted a remarkable piece of work he created that is about a “Umi-Bozu”, Japanese sea monster.
Click for full view of the detail shown on the left.
I was very excited about this Japanese sea monster artwork of my friend because “Umi-bozu” is my surfing nickname here Japan because of my shaved head and eerie sea-blue eyes.
All Japanese pools force me to wear swim cap even though I’m a “cleanhead”—In Japan “Rules are rules” so I have to wear a cap to keep my nonexistent hair from getting into the pool. My friends have even given me a custom Umi-bozu silicon rubber cap sort of like these creations of mine below.
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August 30th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
Taro, dude, just the thought of you surfing…puts a grin on my face. Personally, I always thought of you as more of a mischievous spectre, not a destructive, ship-sinking, bone-snapping one! Anyway, tell M that Christmas is coming! And the bathing cap…that’s just precious! I wanna see pitchers.
August 30th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
I’ve got plenty of bathing cap pictures but all of them are indexed on my external hard disk with a sick power supply.
That last drawing is actually typical of the my talentless “drawing” skills by rehashing graphics from a half dozen sources.
The actual swim cap is white with blaze orange and red umi-bozu (which tends to cause heart attacks and strokes poolside).
August 31st, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Umi-Bozu? i heard of this from the movie Lovely Complex…never knew it meant Sea Monster…
Umibozu is a name of a fictional band in the anime/movie Lovely Complex.
September 1st, 2007 at 3:58 pm
>>Umibozu is a name of a fictional band in the anime/movie Lovely Complex.< <
Very fictional, the actor who does Umibozu, Susumu TERAJIMA, is not even a singer, ha, ha.
Susumu TERAJIMA
寺島 進
Family name (in kanji): 寺島
Given name (in kanji): 進
Date of birth: 1963-11-12
Blood type: A
Cast in:
Casshern (live-action movie) as Sakamoto
Ichi the Killer (live-action movie) as Suzuki
Lovely Complex (live-action movie) as Umibozu (うみぼうず)
Steamboy (movie) as Fredy
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=21875
September 1st, 2007 at 4:58 pm
Here’s a funny MP3 (2.5MB, iPod ready) of a YouTube video of the Umibozu Song:
UMIBOZU song
The rap is performed by Susumu TERAJIMA (he is really a actor who specializes in playing yakuza and is not a singer per se). In the TV show “Lovely Complex” he poses as a wannabe gangsta rapper and with scantily clad girls gyrating against him as he sings inane lyrics, this TV segment is a funny parody of lame rappers.
September 3rd, 2007 at 11:17 am
thank you guys for those info! im becoming a fan of this fictional rapper! haha actually when i saw umibozu’s style, i instantly imagined DJ OZMA
September 30th, 2007 at 12:47 am
Another interesting thing about UmiBozu- the band from LC - is that when he’s rapping about ‘love’, he uses the word “Koi”, a word used to say “love”, but can also refer back to the Koi fish. Adding a bit of humor to the sea theme. :3
October 1st, 2007 at 2:21 am
Ha, ha, that poetic allusion went right over my head. (I’m soooo literal, meh.)
Thanx!
Taro, the lame