From the beginning of the course we have been exposed to the need to look for common points between Asian and European/Spanish culture. Therefore, from that moment on, the figure of the ronin of Japanese folklore came to my mind. In Japanese history, a ronin was a masterless samurai during the feudal period between 1185 and 1868. A samurai might not have a master because of his ruin or fall, or because he had lost his favor. The essence of the ronin reminded me of the legend of El Cid “campeador”, the main figure in the history of our city, Burgos. El Cid was a trusted soldier of King Sancho II of Castile. After his death, Alfonso VI succeeded him to the throne, which did not find in El Cid a reliable figure. In 1079, El Cid was sent to Seville to collect taxes. In that city he had a confrontation with a nobleman from Burgos, who, upon returning to Toledo, accused El Cid of having appropriated a large part of the taxes collected from King alMu'tamid (1068-1091), which was not true. However, without receiving an enlightening trial, the Castilian monarch banished the Burgos hero. At this point the deed of the Cid begins, a great soldier, but without a lord, like the ronin. This closeness in the stories of both characters made me think that a good attraction to attract Japanese tourism to the city of Burgos would be to try to bring the legend of the Cid to them from the similarity with the ronin. So, I set out to make a publicity project for the city of Burgos for the Japanese public.
Objetives:
The main objectives of this project are the following:
- To attract Japanese tourism to the city of Burgos.
- Bringing the history and legend of El Cid closer to the Japanese public.
- To serve as a publicity focus where all the projects that have been carried out within the One Asia course can be brought together.
Design:
On the one hand, the search for the design has been the most complicated process. I was looking for a way to capture the essence of a figure that was half Cid, half ronin. I finally opted for a two-part bust. The final design was commissioned to Pablo Caballero Rodriguez (@pabloscaallero), a young promising artist who graduated from the University of Granada with a degree in Fine Arts and is currently studying for a Masters in Artistic Production at the University of Seville. On the other hand, the slogan on the poster says, “Visit Burgos, the city of Cid, the Spanish ronin". This sentence refers directly to the background of the project. The translation of the text into Japanese was commissioned to Iñigo Gutierrez Uzquiza, a designer from Burgos based in Tokyo and revised by Masako Taniguchi, a Japanese teacher living in Burgos. (ブルゴスへようこそ!スペインの浪人「エル・シッド」 の町)
The final design made by me combined the figure of the Cid/Ronin with a background that leads to the Japanese flag.
Author: Nicolás González