BRIDGE & CAUSEWAY AT MAKIMINATO, OKINAWA -- Standing Where the A&W DRIVE-IN WILL BE in another 110 Years

The standpoint for this 1853 image is what is NOW the entrance driveway to the A & W ROOT-BEER DRIVE-IN RESTAURANT down along Highway 58 near Makiminato.

If artist WILLIAM HEINE had continued sitting there long enough with his sketch pad, he eventually could have had a burger and come curly fries.

Makiminato is the currently used Japanization of the original Okinawan language MACHINATUU name of the spot.

Sketch artist WILLIAM HEINE actually took a very wide panoramic view that was before him, and scrunched it horizontally to fit into this format --- not unlike the way an anamorphic lens on a movie camera places a scrunched picture on the film that has to be un-scrunched and spread out into wide-screen format when it's projected in a movie theater.

However, in this case, you will have to "un-scrunch" the lithograph in your imagination.

The two bridges in the sketch are still there, albeit, constructed with new materials.

Just on the other side of the nearer bridge now sits a ENEOS GASOLINE STATION.

The road seen between the two bridges --- old Highway 58 before WW2 (although they didn't call it Highway 58 back then) --- is still there as well, although it's just a side road, now.

The new Highway 58 crosses the larger MAKIMINATO RIVER via a four-lane overpass that cuts right through the middle of that large rock.

In fact, since I arrived on the island back in 1973, I've watched them remove the entire left side of that fine headland, and replace it with stores and restaurants.

Only the right side remains, and just under it runs the bypass to the CONVENTION CENTER.

Prior to reversion in 1972, the Americans built a large EPISCOPAL CHURCH on top of the rock. Back in the 1990s, they sold out to a SENIOR CITIZENS HOME which now sits up there, and the Church moved to piece of land high above the CAMP LESTER NAVY HOSPITAL in Chatan Town.

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This west-coast view is a true lithographic print (pulled from three successive stones, each inked with a different color, with hand-tinted details added later), made in Philadelphia, Pa in 1856 for inclusion in Volume No.1 of Commodore Matthew Perry's EXPEDITION TO JAPAN.

This is one of twenty full-page lithographs depicting scenes in Okinawa back in 1853-54, during the Black Ship Squadon's five visits to Okinawa while Commodore Perry was negotiating the treaty that opened Japan to the world.

There were also numerous large and small woodcuts of Okinawan scenes dispersed throughout the text.

This sketch was a two-man work of art --- The people were drawn in by Artist and Daguerreotypist ELEPHALET BROWN JR, with the landscape done by German-born expedition member William [Wilhelm] Heine.

At the printers, the original was transferred to the large lithographic stones by an engraver working for the P.S. Duval graphic art publisher --- one of two Philadelphia printers who produced the illustrations for Perry's EXPEDITION report to the U.S. Congress.

[NOTE: Two other lithographic companies in New York City also produced Okinawa lithographic images for the Congressional report.]

FIRE !!!

During the printing of these lithographic plates, the Duval Co. burned to the ground, and many valuable graphic materials connected with the Japan Expedition were lost forever.

The above lithograph is one of the images that made it out of the printing plant before the fire hit.

♥ THE ARTIST : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Heine

♥ THE ULTIMATE WATERMARK : For this Flickr post, I have "un-scrunched" the "anamorphic squeeze" of the original print by a mere 10%... just for the halibut ! ;-)

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Taken on: October 18, 2013

Tags:

Anamorphic Lithograph

William Heine

Okinawa

Makiminato

Machinato

Machinatuu

Makiminato River

Makiminato-Gawa

Ufuishi

Perry Expedition « less

Sets appears in: • OKINAWA ! • OKINAWA - PRE-WW2

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