I learned this Chinese phrase meant “for your beauty” from a very important friend from China.

She runs an international company that deals makeup tools.

I do hope she will like this piece.

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These are for my dear friend from high school days.

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I met her a month ago at a kind of a reunion and promised her to write one letter from her name 美 meaning “beauty”.

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Actually, I am very grateful for her appreciation for my calligraphy, which is always encouraging for me when I practice calligraphy and try to create something new.

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By contrast, there sure are some people who just don’t think good about my calligraphy.  Those people even won’t say flattering things about my calligraphy even though they fully know I have been practicing it for long.

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For that reason, I knew I should have delivered on my promise immediately.  However, in actuality, these days I have only been thinking how I could make a good piece of the letter.

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It took about a month and the worse thing is I only came up with my old idea, that is, a combination of a letter used at present and an ancient form of the same letter.

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I sent her these two and the one put behind is my little, old piece with a phrase “fruitful, gracious showers” because she is　precisely that sort of good-natured person.

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These are the results of the practice session today.

My weakest point, I think, is that all the lines, namely, all the movement of my arm are just utterly predictable.

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This was the assignment our teacher gave at the last practice session.

I wonder what comment she will give me tomorrow.

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I had my fortune forecast by tarot reading today, and at a shrine, that was!  A number of encouraging cards gave me lots of happy inspiration.

Moreover, as a written oracle lover, I got the shrine’s written oracle, as well.

In the lonely, inactive, withering, deep mountains in winter/

Trees are waiting for the spring to bloom/

Translation and calligraphy by Chio

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Autumn moon/

Bower has darkness/

In tow/

Translation and calligraphy by Chio
We will be enjoying the Harvest moon tonight.

This haiku isn’t necessarily about the Harvest moon, however, it is about the moon in the fall season, anyway.

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Today, September 11^th, was the birthday of my first calligraphy teacher, the late Mr. Akiyama Kodo (秋山公道) who passed away around 25 years ago at age 92.  The photo shows his writing of his own poem about how he felt when he turned ninety years old.  A man of letters in those days could compose Chinese style poems adequately following the rules, as well as Japanese style poems, such as haiku’s, tanka’s and what not.

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When I was trying to clean up my terribly cluttered room, I found another piecefrom my young days.  I have completely forgotten about this one, either, and I have no idea how many years ago I did this.

The only thing I found from these two pieces is that I like the phrase, “poetic gracefulness”.

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This was the task for today’s lesson.

It is one of the Zen phrases meaning that just watching clouds, you are having the upmost pleasure because clouds tell you many things; the season, the weather, the direction of the wind; and they transform pretty frequently and engrossingly.  Moreover, they are visible anywhere you are; indoors, on the beach, in the mountains….

This tanzaku or a strip of paper is pasted with very thin bark of Japanese cypress noted for its pleasant aroma.

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I remember it was definitely the most popular piece at the Third Exhibition of Yushokaiin held in 2015.  It is a quite heavy Western style framed work and that is the point I don’t like about it.

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The poet says she leaves the last one petal as is.  I thought if only one petal was left, the result was simply obvious.  The poet must be enjoying the feeling of afterglow of the girlish taste fortunetelling.

Why did I choose this haiku?  Of course, it is because I like fortunetelling. And fortunetelling of all kinds, that is.

When pulling petals off a flower/

Daringly l leave the last one/

Undisturbed/

Translation and calligraphy by Chio

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This was one of the main items for my solo exhibition in 2008, which is a pretty big work of about 136cm x 70cm.

Here I wrote a passage from an ancient Chinese history book of 14^thcentury.  I chose this passage because it briefly touches the origin of mathematics.  As I used to work with mathematicians, I feel warm attachment to mathematics and mathematicians.

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I did this one several years ago.  My hair is quite short (and pink) and I think women with long hair would chime in with this haiku more.

Just like spilling out awkwardness/

I shampoo my hair/

Translation and calligraphy by Chio.

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I showed this to someone today, and she liked it very much!  However, I am not sure what she liked was my calligraphy or the colored paper I chose.

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This is one of the works by my first calligraphy teacher, the late Mr. Akiyama Kodo (秋山公道師) that I possess now.  I just can’t remember if I had to pay for it or he gave it to me as a gift, though.

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This is the only calligraphy my late father left.  I asked him to write it for my first solo exhibitionin 2009.  I have been thinking about him for a couple of days after emailing to a good friend of mine about how he was.

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This is my work from around ten years ago.  The phrase is from the Analects of Confucius.  Its interpretation differs among each person.

I chose this one just because it has characters meaning “beauty” and “intellect”, the first letter of my name.  On top of that I wanted to see how the brush of a long sheaf of hair would work.

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It has been unbearably hot!  Still, somehow, when a nip of fall is beginning to be felt, loneliness also comes in.

Playing with handheld fireworks/

Each has/

Own story/

Translation and calligraphy by Chio

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This has been my favorite haiku for many years. However, I learned quite recently that this flower, hibiscus mutabilis, only blooms for one day and withers at sunset.

The man I put a curse on/

Is the one I love/

Scarlet flower of hibiscus mutabilis/

Translation and calligraphy by Chio

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Excellent luck!

Today I visited the shrine called Himukai-Daijingu for the first time in three months.  I got a written oracle there as I often do.  Its title said “excellent luck” which made me very happy, however, as I read the next part, I found a message in the form of the Japanese traditional poem, saying “You might feel as if you are walking on a rustic bridge over a swirling brook in a valley in the evening.”  And I wondered if this was really “Excellent luck”.

Then came an explanation that said as follows, “Although you at first have worries, you don’t need to dither.  Everything will be all right at the end.”

I just hope this divination comes true!

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I am now trying to sort out my works from the past.  And in doing so, I found this one, which I have completely forgotten.  The movement of the brush gives awkwardness from youth.  In fact, I don’t use this seal under my signature any more.

The letters mean poetic gracefulness.

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This wooden box cup for drinking sakéor Japanese wine was a souvenir for the hundreds of party participants that got together to celebrate longevity of my first calligraphy teacher, the late Mr. Akiyama Kodo （秋山公道）who enjoyed a long life.  He himself wrote two Chinese characters of good omen on each cup.

So, again, here’s to the art and culture of calligraphy!

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Elderly people sometimes say the spirits of the ancestors come back home from the afterworld guided by the red Chinese lantern fruits.  I hope they have already arrived here safely for the Bon Festival or the Buddhist Festival of the ancestral spirits.

Inside the Chinese lantern fruit/

Scarlet universe may exist/

Translation and calligraphy by Chio

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This is no “fancy” restaurant at all, but I was happy to chat with one of my good old friends who had been hospitalized for a considerable period because of a serious injury.  The truth is, however, she still has pain in the leg.  Despite this, I heard she resumed practicing ping-pong, her greatest pastime.  And I admire her positivity.

Cicadas are out (and noisy)/

My friend is also out of the hospital/

We celebrated with red wine/

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This was the task for today’s practice session.

It is a large-scale poem from the ancient Japan with motifs of sky, star, moon and cloud…

When remaking on my work, our teacher said to me something like, “If the ink goes blur, let it blur to the end.”  In other words, I was too timid and impatient.

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Holding a brush

Young children, elderly people, ailing people…practically anyone can hold a brush and write.  I am sure this is the wisdom of the Orient.

A longtime good friend of mine from high school days took the photo for me to post on my “shops” on eBay and Etsy.

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They say cicadas begin shrilling right after the rainy season is over.  How true that is!  And it makes you realize summer is about to reach its peak.

First shrilling of the cicadas of the year’s summer/

I wish that/

Wishing pays off/

Translation and calligraphy by Tomoko

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My first teacher (秋山公道the late Mr. Akiyama Kodo) was almost 60 years old when I started going to his school at age six.

When he got very sick and was hospitalized for the first time, I was really surprised and shocked simply because that was a rare happening in my life then.

I went to his hospital room with a towel hanger in the shape of a hippo face with a big mouth as a get-well present.

Apparently, he was inspired by my childish gift, he wrote this haiku and made it into a piece of calligraphy work and later, he gave this framed work to me.

Towel hanger/

Making a clattering sound/

In the sweaty hospital room/

Translation by Tomoko

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This is what I want to convey to myself in childhood blessed with great love from her parents, in very young days and in the bloom of her youth.  For, they don’t know how respected and pretty I am at present.

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Many years ago, at a language school I went to then, a teacher said to me, “You’re a strong woman.”  However, at that time, I didn’t believe him. I just couldn’t.  I am not very sure about that even now, but at present I am finally beginning to think he had an insight into true nature of me.

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What is beautiful?  Is the window itself beautiful?  Is the scenery through the window beautiful? Is the person looking out from the window beautiful?

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These are the tasks for today’s practice session. Learning the basics is the most important after all.

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These are my recent framed works.  Choosing a right frame maybe more difficult than writing letters.

And with some of these, I tried combining two kinds of paper, cloth and paper; and thin sheet of paper and thick cards.  In short, these are all at the experimental stage.

These are some of the results of today’s practice session.  The one with man’yōganawas the most difficult.

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This is the very first task that my first calligraphy teacher, the late Mr. Akiyama Kodo (秋山公道) gave me about 57 years ago.

Unfortunately, I can’t think of anything else when someone comes to me and asks me to teach them basic calligraphy and I always give my new students this same task in the first lesson.  I asked my senior calligrapher how I could teach the beginners differently, and her answer was, “That’s only natural and it can’t be helped.  People can teach only how they were taught, after all.”

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