Now I think I haven’t written pieces of this favorite theme of mine for a while, that is, contrast of the letters used nowadays and
ancient letters. Putting them side by side will make an interesting work, I believe. The one written in dark ink is a modern form and the one in pale ink is ancient form of 楽.
The seasonal phrase for about a week starting today is this, namely, “swallows arrive” migrating from south. The characters in the phrase literally mean “black birds come”. Now, I remember swallows used to come and build nests every spring at the entrance of my mother’s natal home. I also remember people were happy to have them, believing the birds bring happiness.
〜Special gifts and the ending season 頂きものと残桜〜 . The photos show a pair of inksticks with dragon images my longtime good friend gave me and an inkstone from China my teacher and his wife gave me a long time ago as a remembrance token. Although my friend’s mother is a calligrapher, she gave away these inksticks because she thinks she won’t need them anymore. Using these tools, I wrote “remaining cherry blossoms”. . 旧い友人から頂いた墨と先生ご夫妻からずいぶん前に形見に頂いた端渓硯。友人の母上は書家でいらっしゃるのに、『もう使わないから』と友人を介して龍の模様の墨をくださいました。これらを使って『殘櫻』を書きました。 . <To the homepage of this website>
This is another small work of mine that I found while cleaning the house. It is “deep love, to foster, to learn”. In short, symbols of parents’ love toward their children, I heard.
“People begin hearing distant rolls of thunder.” In fact, this is the last seasonal phrase for March. The drumstick you see on the left is a custom-made item of the famous drummer whose sad news of death was officially announced some time ago. I am now remembering it was almost 20 years ago that I picked it up thrown to the audience by the drummer himself at the end of a concert.
The other day, I went and enjoyed a film adaptation of a musical. It would be extremely hard to get its ticket in ordinary situation even if you belong to its fan club, however, as live performance on stage seems really hard to realize in these difficult days, they made it into a motion picture and so I could enjoy it to the fullest extent. Now I just wonder what is positive and what is negative.
Songs of Japanese bush warblers seem to stand out among other birds these days. Here is another copying practice of my teacher’s work which I am sure expresses his mischievous side very well. This is a phonetic equivalence of a Japanese word for this bird. And I remember he loved this kind of game very much. We Japanese have a traditional belief in the spiritual power of words and here, it seemed he believed in that of each character and chose letters of positive, bright, auspicious attribute.