BEAUTIFUL OKIMONO BUGS!

Oct 16

When I opened a small box and a big spider popped out, my first instinct was to recoil. Over years of conscious practice I have trained myself not to flip out when a big brown spider skitters along the floor. As a teenager, in the basement room of my family home — a big Victorian house in New Westminster — those big brown spiders would routinely wander through my room. And they were big enough that I could hear them. My best offence was a large book dropped on them, or an empty MJB coffee can tipped over it. (That would necessitate my dad’s help later to properly eliminate the creature, but the clip clip clipping of legs against can wall is a sound that will never leave my memory.)

Many of us live in more modern — or at least renovated — houses these days, and rarely come into contact with spiders larger than a thumbnail. However, our forebears from tens of thousands of years ago had to develop deep fear and quick reactions to the more abundant and more dangerous spiders and insects that crawled through their world. It has been established by plenty of smart people, conducting experiments with hapless children and compliant adults, that the fear and disgust many of us naturally feel and express today is in fact a deep-seated survival instinct that evolved in ancient times.

Back to our spider. And our hornet, who also shared that small box.

Japanese Okimono were small handmade creatures, critters, animals, and objects that have been made for centuries from a variety of mediums. Okimono made of metal were sometimes articulated, called jizai okimono, others, like the two here, were static.

Okimono Bugs are considered good luck, and each bug is instilled with its own special powers. Iron insects were crafted by the makers of Samurai armour. The hornet’s metal wings are Japanese meadate with a body of hand-forged iron. The spider is entirely iron.