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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My greatest pastime lately is practicing calligraphy with my mother who turned 91 in July.
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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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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 14thcentury. 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 thought I would practice a lot today. However, seeing my mother nodding off sitting beside me, I myself became sleepy as well….
Drowsiness turns/
Ink slab/
Into late summer sea/
Translation and calligraphy by Chio.
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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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