My name as a calligrapher, a pseudonym, is 知櫻.

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I tried several times to prepare materials as a part for a layout of my new business cards to be designed by a longtime good of mine.

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What I really want to do is give impactful impression to those who see my business cards.

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Now, I am feeling very frustrated about being unable to go and discuss face-to-face this important matter with the designer.

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Since a Japanese enkianthus tree in my garden is in full bloom now, I felt like searching on the net for an ancient Chinese poem on “white flower” as a material for my calligraphy work.

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However, what came out was this… a poem by Lu Tong, a poet in the Tang Dynasty and enthusiastic tea lover known as a deep understander of the tea ceremony culture.

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The information on the net says, the poet composed this poem to acclaim the ceremonial tea, because he thought he saw a beautiful scenery in a tea bowl composed of the clouds, breeze, white flowers and light.

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The other day I wrote one of the well-known Zen phrases https://wp.me/p2EZhA-2AI and this is another one.

A website about popular Zen words says its rough meaning is “Check it by yourself whether it is cold or warm.”  In other words, don’t believe what others say, but believe in things that you have actually experienced yourself.

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I think I must admit that I am a kind of person who gets influenced by what others say quite easily, still I am sometimes tempted to say to some people, “Check yourself first!”.

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Am I hypocritical?

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Yesterday I got a couple of cute face masks from a very good, long-time friend of mine.  As the photo may show you, they are handsewn, just like the ones some people are wearing these days.

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Today I proudly used the blackish one going to the grocery store I frequent.

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Although my friend thought it might look somewhat strange to some people, in fact, only few people did a double take at it.

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I dropped/

Some of my real feelings/

Into a face mask/

Translation and calligraphy by Chio

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Both my late first calligraphy teacher and my late mother were born in the year of the dragon, that is, in the Chinese astrological calendar.

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And I searched idioms with the character meaning “dragon” having positive connotations on the net.

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Then I found this one that roughly means in turbulent times a dragon, a symbol of a heroic brave appears and plays outstandingly.

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The other day I wrote about my half-formed idea https://wp.me/p2EZhA-2Au and I hope to further polish up this idea, that is, “a Chinese character in a circle”.

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This time, I used some colorants and different types of paper, different in color and material to see how the ink turns out.

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Moreover, I tried to write thicker lines than before to make the characters stick out more.

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I am now hoping to create more sophisticated works next time.

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This phrase is from the solar system terms and it is one of the segmentalized one that is allocated to the period from April 14 to 19.

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It literally means “rainbow firstly appears”.

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I desperately want to see rainbows both actually and figuratively.

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This phrase is one of the popular Zen words and it means “Your treasure is already in your hand”, in other words, you already have everything you need.  So, we only have to try and take notice of it.

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Above is what I learned from my calligraphy teacher and on the net.

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It simply reminded me of the story, “The Blue Bird” at first, however, now I am wondering if this one of the reasons we should stay home as long as possible….

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Cherry blossoms are beginning to fall.  However, the trees will certainly bloom new flowers year after year.

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Cherry blossoms always make me feel lonely and sad because they remind me of the people who loved the flowers but not here with me any longer.

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The photo shows my unadorned feeling toward the blossoms.

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It is a little depressing to think I will continue to have this kind of feelings every year.

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It all started here.

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The photo shows the very first samples my first calligraphy teacher gave me that I found when trying (just “try” and not “succeed” or “finish”) to tidy-up my house.

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Looking at these, I renewed a sense of gratitude to my first calligraphy teacher and his wife who were both great calligraphers; and my parents who let me continue practicing with them.

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