「星の時間　Cycles of the stars」カテゴリーアーカイブ

Start of the joyful season

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According to the old lunar calendar, yesterday marked the beginning of spring.

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“Start” “Spring” “Excellent” “Fortune”

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This phrase is a kind of a motto of that day and has been believed to work as a charm to drive away evils and bring in happiness.  I have once heard that people in ancient times sensed something auspicious because all the letters are bilaterally symmetrical.

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For copying practice, I picked four characters from a book of collection of various letters written by my first teacher, the late Mr. Akiyama Kodo (秋山公道).  That book was compiled in a dictionary format by my senior calligrapher at his school.

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Visiting shrines

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For some years now, I have been interested in visiting shrines at various occasions.

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Today it is Setsubun, the end of the winter according to the old lunar calendar, so I went to Yoshida Shrine, the most famous shrine in Kyoto regarding this occasion, where people say most elderly people in Kyoto gather for the occasion.

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Oh, birds chirp/

Shrine gave me the oracle/

Written on a pale-green paper/

Translation and calligraphy by Chio

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January 15

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People have long celebrated the day, January 15 as a kind of second New Year Day, because according to the lunar calendar, it marks the first full moon after the New Year Day.

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The well-known shrine in my neighborhood provides rice porridge cooked with azuki beans every year.

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I got some for my mother who will turn 92 in summer, because the porridge is supposed and expected to bring good luck to the elderly.

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I wrote “avoiding disaster”, “inviting happiness”, “health” and “longevity” for her.

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Not yet begun

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This was exhibited in the First Exhibition of Yushokai held in July 2011.

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For this piece, I quoted a passage from Ms. Yukari Ishii’s blog, which unfortunately she erased completely some time ago.  She is a super popular astrologist and writer and writes on many subjects other than horoscope reading.

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The passage can be roughly translated…

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“Misty kind of non-entity that might be going to be a river but forms nothing yet”

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In those days, I was into using very light colored ink.

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Professional calligrapher?

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This is one of my pieces exhibited at the first exhibition of Yushokai in July, 2011.

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I was very much inspired by a book about Zen phrases written by Ms. Yukari Ishii, a well-known and popular astrologist and writer and picked one item from the book as a motif for my calligraphy work.  Being a great fan of hers, I sent her my best work.

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Then, to my ultimate delight, she posted its photo on her blog on November 11, 2010!!

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Regrettably, however, one day she stopped writing her blog quite suddenly.

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And more regrettable at this point is the fact that I had sent her the best one and so what the photo shows is my second best.

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White dew

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Today marks 白露, one of the seasonal stages according to the traditional East Asian calendar. It literally means “white dew” and remarks that about this time, the atmosphere gets cooler and white dews begin to fall.

I practiced copying a work of a haiku on this season done by my first calligraphy teacher, the late Mr. Akiyama Kodo (秋山公道) many years ago.

Twisting bush clovers/

Won’t drop/

White dews/

Translation calligraphy by Chio

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Important factor in life

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Important factor in life

I enjoyed an exciting reunion and a delightful conversation with people who led me to the greatest event in my life.  It is so hard to put into words how grateful I am to them.

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To an old friend

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I got an e-mail message from a good, old friend from our high school days.  Incidentally, as the Mercury is retrograding, we may meet with each other for the first time in many years.  The letter is the first one in her name.

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Favorite flower and favorite haiku

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For this single-leaf screen, I chose my favorite haiku about my favorite flower, hydrangeas.  I remembered about this screen when a kind-hearted neighbor gave us these flowers from her garden yesterday evening.  This screen is an old work of mine from about ten years ago.  It welcomed visitors at the entrance to my first solo exhibition.  I am now flooded with many good memories of the exhibition.

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