Category Archives: writing

Views of an Imaginary City 30: Sensuka-Okrona Friendship Garden in Rateliska Sesquicentennial Park

Posted on October 16, 2023 by julian peters comics

The city of Okrona was the imperial capital, on and off, for more than eleven centuries (and is still sometimes regarded as the Empire’s cultural capital). On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the transfer of the imperial seat … Continue reading →

Posted in Imaginary City, watercolour, writing | Tagged fall leaves, imaginary city, imaginary places, japanese prints, menage a trois, sehnsucht, ukiyo-e | 2 Comments

Views of an Imaginary City 10: View over Sensuka Harbour from Orepi

Posted on June 15, 2023 by julian peters comics

We are looking southeast over Sensuka Bay from the great stone wharf at Orepi. It is very early morning, and the first sun’s rays have just caught the facades of the eastward-facing buildings on the right side of the print. … Continue reading →

Posted in Imaginary City, watercolour, writing | Tagged beauty, imaginary city, imaginary places, japanese prints, saudade, sehnsucht, ukiyo-e | 3 Comments

Views of an Imaginary City 20: A Street in the Najirèh District

Posted on March 3, 2023 by julian peters comics

20. A Street in Najirèh The outer district of Najirèh (“Empress”) is so named in honour of the empress Aritokèh, during whose reign the area’s first streets were laid out. It is located on a raised plateau surrounded by rice … Continue reading →

Posted in illustration, Imaginary City, watercolour, writing | Tagged imaginary city, imaginary places, japanese prints, sehnsucht, suburbs, ukiyo-e | Leave a comment

Views of an Imaginary City 34: A Nizimoamuàri

Posted on February 14, 2023 by julian peters comics

Two people walk past each other on a quiet street corner, both looking about their surroundings in an apparent state of reverie. The inscription tells us that we are looking at a nizimoamuàri, which could be translated as “a past … Continue reading →

Posted in illustration, Imaginary City, watercolour, writing | Tagged deja vu, imaginary cities, imaginary city, imaginary places, japanese prints, sehnsucht, ukiyo-e | 5 Comments

Views of an Imaginary City 38: Along the Nachilagolu

Posted on November 22, 2022 by julian peters comics

The Nachilagolu (“Long Canal”) connects the Juminta River just above Cherufi Falls to the imperial shipbuilding yards at Kulidaseh. After descending a number of locks near the falls, the canal runs for the rest of its course through a flat … Continue reading →

Posted in watercolour, writing | Tagged imaginary city, imaginary places, japanese prints, naviglio, reincarnation, sehnsucht, ukiyo-e | 2 Comments

View of an Imaginary City 48: The Stairway to Nowhere at Tanaliska

Posted on December 30, 2021 by julian peters comics

According to Chogya beliefs, it is possible for individual souls to reincarnate into lives chronologically antecedent to the ones that they have just lived through. This would seem to open the door to a number of potential temporal paradoxes, were … Continue reading →

Posted in Imaginary City, watercolour, writing | Tagged a la recherche du temps perdu, imaginary city, imaginary places, in searh of lost time, japanese prints, marcel proust, past lives, reincarnation, sehnsucht, stairway to nowhere, ukiyo-e | Leave a comment

Views of an Imaginary City 44: Bird Temple in Peleosti

Posted on September 8, 2021 by julian peters comics

The view is from a hill in the Peleosti district, overlooking a skyline dominated by the dome of the Chogyan Temple of Tofa, the Luck Goddess. Occupying the majority of the picture plane, however, is a close-up depiction of what … Continue reading →

Posted in illustration, Imaginary City, watercolour, writing | Tagged bird feeder, birdwatching, imaginary cities, imaginary places, japanese prints, proselytizing, reincarnation, religion, ukiyo-e | 2 Comments

Views of an Imaginary City 33: View of Orepi Tower

Posted on July 26, 2021 by julian peters comics

Orepi Tower is perhaps Sensuka’s most iconic building. Even those foreigners who know next to nothing about the city may recognize it as “that barber’s pole tower.” The tower was built under the empress Nanéh as a monument to her … Continue reading →

Posted in illustration, Imaginary City, watercolour, writing | Tagged cn tower, conspiracy theories, imaginary cities, imaginary city, imaginary places, invisible cities, japanese prints, loneliness, panopticon, sehnsucht, surveillance, trajan's column, ukiyo-e | Leave a comment

Views of an Imaginary City 37: Inside the Imperial Library

Posted on June 23, 2021 by julian peters comics

The Imperial Library in the Kaduyorma (See n. 4) holds the largest collection of books in all of the empire. Indeed, it is supposed to house all of the books ever published in the imperial domains since the advent there … Continue reading →

Posted in illustration, Imaginary City, watercolour, writing | Tagged imaginary cities, imaginary city, imaginary places, japanese prints, library, poetry reading, sehnsucht, ukiyo-e | 6 Comments

Views of an Imaginary City 32: Along the Tizabu Canal

Posted on May 25, 2021 by julian peters comics

The Nefirobe neighbourhood sits on a small hill at the northern end of the Lekaro district, just to the west of the much larger hill of Labetachi. In the reigns of Bulodi II and of the empress Aritokéhhe neighbourhood was … Continue reading →

Posted in illustration, Imaginary City, painting, watercolour, writing | Tagged dino buzzati, imaginary cities, imaginary city, imaginary places, japanese prints, lamplighter, oldlamplighter, projection, sehnsucht, ukiyo-e, writing | Leave a comment