The following photograph rich article features scenes that Takeshi Yamada sees when he goes to shop for groceries in Coney Island area of Brooklyn, New York. All the photographs featured here were taken by Yamada unless noted. For years numerous films, TV news segments, DVD, and Youtube clips produced in American and Canada have featured the eccentric life of Yamada in Coney Island. This manuscript was produced by Dr. Eriko N. Bond, noted art critic and book author in New York City, as told by Yamada.

JOURNEY TO THE GROCERY STORE

Coney Island, summer 2007

By Takeshi Yamada and Dr. Eriko N. Bond

Part 5

The mega store Linens-n-Things, and the drive through Starbuck Coffee that opened in 2006, located by the Coney Island Creek bridge.  Just like frogs are the bio indicator for environmental researchers, these retail stores are economical indicators for visual anthropologists.

The image of Siren/Mermaid was used for the corporate logo of this coffee shop. Takeshi Yamada said he was “glad to see the double-tailed mermaid has finally arrived to Coney Island”, although he does not drink coffee at all. “Coffee is an air freshener. You do not drink air freshener!”, so Yamada claims.

A 1950’s style classic, big, shiny Diner by the grocery store. Sadly, lovely diners like this have been dramatically disappearing from the cultural landscape of America in the last few decades. This diner is open 24 hours. (September 5, 2007)

The final destination of this journey - the Pathmark grocery store. It is actually less than 10 minutes walking distance from the residence of Takeshi Yamada. It is a major grocery store chain and open 24/7. This particular location has a decent fresh seafood section - unlike other grocery stores such as Keyfood and a big Russian grocery store in Coney Island. (The next door of Coney Island area is Brighten Beach, which is nicknamed “Little Odessa” because over 70% of population is Russian.)  

Unlike the Asian people in Manhattan and Brooklyn’s Chinatown, people around here in Coney Island - or Western people in America in general - do not regularly consume a large amount of seafood, and thus there are only a few stores where fresh and live seafood is available in Coney Island as of today.  Sadly, a small seafood store on the Mermaid Avenue by the Coney Island-Stillwell subway station also closed this year (2007).

Yamada was born and raised in Japan, where people on the average eat more than their body weight in seafood annually. Yamada has been Americanized since 1983, when he moved to America, but his diet has changed little. He still loves seafood and consumes a much larger amount of seafood than average Americans. Yamada eats a variety of seafood such as clams, mussels, oysters, salmon filets, shark, mackerel, tuna steaks, tilapia, squid, shrimp, crab (king crab, snow crab, Dungeness crab) as a diet staple even today.

New Journey

For Takeshi Yamada, the journey to the grocery store and Coney Island Creek was not the end. It became the beginning point of his new journey to the Ryugu, the mythological Chinese Dragon’s Palace, where he encountered the divine face of Otohime, the mythological daughter of Chinese Dragon King, within the quahog clam that he collected at Coney Island Creek when he moved to Coney Island area of Brooklyn, New York. Just like the Italian Renaissance artists in the 16th century, he took it as a personal hidden message sent from Amaterasu-oomikami (the Creator described in Shintoism, the national religion of Japan) and Buddha (who was born as a real prince who later founded Buddhism in India). (Note: Takeshi Yamada, like the majority of the people of Japan have for many centuries, belongs to multiple religions simultaneously even today.)

The face of the Sea Goddess within the quahog clam.

Being deeply inspired by the Sea Goddess inside the quahog clamshell, Yamada started creating a series of unique and original jewelry artworks by using raw clamshells that he collected at the Coney Island Beach, Coney Island Creek, and this grocery store, where the clams are harvested locally in New Jersey. He also learned about the 4,000 year old tradition of ancient sacred artwork of the clamshell, created by the hands of Native American tribes living in this area, called ‘wampum’.

The “Blackeye” is the oldest form of wampum talisman, or good-luck-charm, used to communicate with the spirit world by Native Americans. The term ‘Blackeye’ is an English translation; in the Native American language Algonquin, it is "suckauaskeequash".  Its color is actually a very dark purple. The Black Eye can be found exclusively among the quahog clams grown specifically in the North Eastern area of America. In the later centuries, wampum beads became the standard among Natives. Wampum was used by the early European settlers as the first official currency of this nation; the European settlers also created their own version of wampum, imitating the ones made by Native Americans. Wampum was used as the official government tax, university tuition, and settlers even bought the land of New York and other states from Native Americans by wampum. (For more information, please read the comprehensive articles on wampum by Takeshi Yamada.)

Just like the ancient Native American tribes in this area of America did many centuries ago, Yamada also trimmed, ground, and polished the quahog clamshells by hand during the winter months, and created his own magical and sacred Blackeye wampum talismans.

Some of Yamada’s jewelry artworks were sold at upscale fine art galleries in Manhattan and Brooklyn in New York. Here are photographs of some of Yamada’s breath-taking original and unique hand-crafted jewelry artworks.

Eyes of Sea Goddess (Eyes of Mermaid) by Takeshi Yamada,

acrylic and graphite on quahog clam, August 2005, 3-3/8 x 2-3/4 inch each.

This is an amulet - a magical object for protection against evil spirits.

Yamada’s quahog jewelry “Blackeye” necklace and “Yin and Yang” earrings.  

These are talismans - magical objects to bring benefits (good-luck-charms). 2006

Later, Yamada started creating a completely new and original series of artworks - color drawings and paintings - inspired by the images appearing on the Blackeye wampum, which he created from the quahog clamshell. With his true genius, deeply insightful and comprehensive cross-cultural mythological investigations (Native American, Japanese, and Chinese), the following artworks were created by Yamada. With these pieces, Yamada added new pages to the book of the ancient art of wampum. Today, Takeshi Yamada is one of a handful of people in the entire world who still engages in creating artworks associated with wampum. Some of his wampum inspired paintings were shown at the prestigious cultural and educational institutions such as Arsenal Gallery (New York City Department of Parks & Recreation) in Manhattan (New York, New York) in 2006 and 2007.

Quahog Landscape #1: Journey to the Dragon King's World,

acrylic on wooden plate, 10 inch, 2006

Yamada first created the Blackeye wampum pictured in the upper right corner, and then interpreted the image embedded within, shown full sized center.

Quahog Landscape #3: Journey to the Dragon King's World,

acrylic on Canvas, 24 x 32 inch, 2006

Another image embedded within the Blackeye wampum interpreted by Yamada.

Princess Otohime, daughter of the Chinese Dragon King at Ryugu, the Dragon’s Palace.

Acrylic on wood panel, 10”, 2006

Yamada interpreted the image embedded within the Blackeye wampum he created.

Copyright by Takeshi Yamada, Museum of World Wonders in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York, September 2007. Revised March 2008, All Rights Reserved.    

E-mail: yamada108@aol.com

Special thanks to Dr. Eriko N. Bond, Lauren D. Travis, and Maremi Kakushina.

Proofreading by Theresa Baker

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