The Sumida River c. early 1830s

This is Ryūryūkyo Shinsai's woodblock print of The Sumida River. Observe the frame encasing the scene: it's adorned with seemingly foreign characters, resembling a Western alphabet, yet they are, in fact, Japanese katakana script, employed here for purely decorative, almost abstracted means. Such visual play reminds us how readily symbols migrate and transform. Think of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs adopted by the Greeks, losing their original sacred meanings and becoming mere ornamentation. Similarly, Shinsai uses script not for its semantic value, but for its aesthetic form, pointing to a deep, perhaps subconscious, understanding of cultural appropriation. This river scene, bordered by repurposed script, evokes a sense of serene detachment. But the presence of these adopted symbols is a poignant reminder of the ever-shifting currents of influence. The past, like the river, flows into the present, constantly reshaping our perceptions.