tee shirt designs
To possibly keep a long story short, I grew up on land that was taken from the Japanese during World War II. My house was two blocks from Whites’ Point and Royal Palms state beach in San Pedro, CA. I spent a majority of my time growing up down at Royal Palms, more time probably than at home. I was out surfing as much as possible. Before World War II, Whites’ Point and Royal Palms was a Japanese resort with hot springs and an abalone harvesting operation. In 1933 an earthquake leveled all of the buildings and later that decade the only tropical storm to ever hit CA, washed the remains of the resort out to sea. Leaving me and my friends, decades later, all of the cement foundations and outdoor ballroom to grow up with and wonder about. Not to mention underwater hazards. The last remaining structure was the fountain from the middle of the resort, which a friend and I watched get swallowed by the sea in 1983 during a huge pacific storm. We also got to meet many Japanese tourist coming to visit the area.
Here is a slide show of the area from the 1920’s take a peek if I have your interest;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pvlocalhistory/with/3855599783/
Here is a little more history and a picture of the fountain;
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/5views/5views4h101.htm
So, I have always had a connection with Japanese Culture in America, basically through the history of the land I grew up on. I have always had a fondness of Japanese art and especially Japanese art that depicts shall we say “Americana”. In 2005 I made a friend, through my website, in Japan who is an artist and his work is some of my favorite. His name is Yoshi Yuki, he lives in Tokyo and he has a great love of banjos and old time music. This is his blog… http://blogs.dion.ne.jp/goodgoodsillustration/. Last year he agreed to do T shirt designs for me and today they arrived… I LOVE THEM!! I hope yall do to. It is very enjoyable that through making banjos, I have found friends abroad.
Pictured are the watercolor and pen on thick paper originals. They will be scanned by those tee shirt making peoples, to make tee shirts. Brooks Banjos tee shirts!!
The first is a T made with banjo and fiddle to spell out the music we all love so much.
The second is a banjo on an old chair the lettering says “Katakan” which Yuki says means “Brooks Banjos” How cool is that!!??
The third is my BB tailpiece and the lettering says “Hirgana” which means “tailpiece”
The fourth picture are big waves at Royal Palms point and you can see on the shore the remnants of the outdoor ballroom floor from the 20’s that was built by the Japanese. There are tables and booths of stone built into the cliffs also…
The fifth picture is of all the boys taking a licking at Royal Palms jetty.
THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH YUK! You have made my day, my wife and I both weeped when we opened the box. MUCH RESPECT.
