Embu

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There are other municipalities that begins with Embu, see Embu-Guaçu and there is an Embu in Kenya, see Embu, Kenya

Coordinates: 23°38′56″S, 46°51′07″W Embu, also Embu das Artes, is a Brazilian city in the State of São Paulo. It is a suburb of the capital. The population in 2006 was 245,855 inhabitants. Population density is 3,508.2 /km² and the area is 70 km².

Its curious history brought it an unexpected specialization as a city for artists. This has paid tourism dividends to the city.

[edit] History

The history of Embu began in 1554, when a group of Jesuits of the aldeamento of Bohi, later M'Boy, half way between the sea and the São Paulo hinterlands. As the jesuít missions in the interior of Brazil then, this had the primary objective of converting the local indians, in an attempt to use the Indians as farm workers in the region.

In 1607 the lands of the village passed to the hands of Fernão Dias (uncle of the bandeirante Fernão Dias, the emerald hunter), In 1690, the priest Belchior de Pontes initiated the construction of the Igreja do Rosário (the Church of the Rosary), when it transferred at the same time to the nucleus of the original village. In 1760, for order of the Portuguese Crown (Coroa Portuguesa), the Jesuits were expulsed from Brazil.

The artistic vocation of the city started to project itself in 1937, when Cássio M'Boy, santeiro of Embu, gained first in the Great Prize in the International Exposition of Arts Techniques in Paris. Already before, however, Cássio was professor of some artists and received his illustrious house representative of the Modernistic movement of 1922 and the arts in São Paulo, including Anita Malfatti, Tarsila do Amaral, Oswald de Andrade, Menotti Del Picchia, Volpi and Yoshio Takaoka.

Cássio M'Boy followed Sakai de Embu, that it started for being disciple of Cássio and internationally came to be recognized as one of the great Brazilian ceramist-sculptors. Sakai formed a group of plastic artists, which belongs to the Solano Trindade.

This began in Embu in 1962 and brings obtains the african culture, congregating a group of artists in its redor, and introducing the tradition of orisha.

The artistic tradition of the city is institutionalized and gained projects inside and outside of Brazil in 1964. Parallel, from the late-1960s, that all display its works, giving origin to the Feira de Artes and Artesanato, it brought through every weekend since 1969 and is one of the main engines of the tourist project of the city.