2016年7月22日金曜日 - 
Aristotle Piso: Neon lighting
There is something to be said for neon lighting; the unmistakable splash of electric color, a bright burning sigil adorning many an entryway along the cramped and crammed labyrinth of side streets and alleyways of Namba. Stark colors shine all the brighter in these wet nights, reflected in windows and puddles, turning any crooked corridor into a hallway of light.
I will
confess that, like many a recently tattooed college coed, I too find the flowing iconography of Japanese script to have
an undeniable eloquence
of form; a beauty unaffected by my own inability to understand. Though to paraphrase the musing of Irish playwright Oscar
Wilde “nothing beautiful is truly meant to be understood”. So who is to say
that what is signage
to you is not art to me?
No language
shines quite so bright in fourteen-inch neon as those unmistakable curves and slashes that comprise the Japanese language. But
if there is a word in any language that can describe the atmospheric intensity that neon offers, I don’t
know it. For it is more than just signage, some flat exclamation, some bland bill of sale.
No, the marriage of script and form, this sheen of Neon Japan. It’s
something ascendant.
neon
lighting：ネオンの明かり
unmistakable：紛れもない
sigil：西洋魔術で使われる図形、記号、紋章など
adorning：装飾する
entryway：玄関
cramped：窮屈な
crammed：詰め込まれた
alleyways：路地
stark：赤裸々な
reflected：反射された
puddles：水たまり
crooked： 曲がった
corridor：廊下
coed：女子大生
iconography：図像
eloquence：雄弁さ
paraphrase：言い換え
musing：詩才
signage：標識の総称
curves：カーブを描いた線
slashes：斜めに切り込んだ線
comprise：構成する
intensity：強烈さ
sheen：輝き