I practiced copying my teacher’s work again. This is a Buddhist term meaning “an actual practice of wisdom to learn a higher truth”. I believe he had a good grasp of the phrase before writing it. However, all I could do was to try to copy the forms of each letter.
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また先生の書の臨書をしました。これは仏語で、「真理を悟る智慧の実践」という意味のようです。先生はその意味をしっかり捉えて書かれたのだと思いますが、私はその字の形を真似ようとするだけです。
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I learned it meant “east wind or spring wind begins to melt ice”. This is the first seasonal phrase for the month of February.
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東風解凍。春風が氷を溶かし始める、という意味らしいです。2月初めの七十二候の名称です。
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Almost a week passed since the beginning of February. It was a pretty warm day today and the sky looked very beautiful. I am not sure whether this one was for the group exhibition I arranged in 2013 or the one in 2015. I am getting older and my memory is becoming weaker.
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2月に入って一週間ほどにもなります。今日は暖かい日で、空も美しかったです。これが2013年に主宰したグループ展用の作品だったのか、2015年に開いたグループ展用だったのか分からなくなりました。年を取ると、記憶力も怪しい。
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O the month of February:
Bird cuts the space/sky:
Beautifully:
Translation and calligraphy by Chio
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I practiced copying of my teacher’s calligraphy. It is “gold or something very good is born from clear water”. He and his family moved from Tokyo to Kyoto to escape from the war damage. After that he kept living in Kyoto, complaining it was an undesirable place to live. I heard it was all because the good quality water in Kyoto, something of best value for a calligrapher.
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先生の書の臨書をしました。『綺麗な水から良いものが生まれる』ということ。先生一家は戦禍を逃れて東京から京都に移って来られました。京都は住みにくいと言いながらもずっとおられたのは水が良かったからだそうです。書家にとっては何よりのことなので。
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It is windy and very cold today. However, according to the old calendar, spring already began yesterday, and a little hint of the spring season seems to be in the air. When something is leaving, I wonder if wishing to deterrent it is an innate tendency of human nature.
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今日は風が強くて寒いですが、立春も過ぎて春が近づいている感じがします。過ぎ去って行こうとするものを何故か留めておきたいというのが人間の性なのでしょうか。
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To trap winter/
In a transparent glass case/
Translation and calligraphy by Chio
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Today marks the beginning of spring, according to the old calendar, so this is “first day of spring; very lucky”, a kind of motto for this day. I have heard because all four characters are bilaterally symmetric, the phrase looks the same when seeing both from the front and the back, and so it creates ultimate happiness.
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立春のためのモットーのようなものですが、４字ともが左右対称なので、表から見ても裏から見ても同じで、それで縁起がいいのだと聞いたことがあります。
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Today falls on Setsubun or the close of winter.
My mother unexpectedly liked what I did rather jokingly years ago.
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ずいぶん前にちょっとふざけて書いたようなものを母が気に入ってくれていました。
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This is a rather a rather mediocre result, I am afraid, of my copying practice of the calligraphy by my first calligraphy teacher. It is 飛 or “to fly”. And I was tempted to add some words by his daughter at the bottom like I did on December 16, 2020.
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Fly
For what?
For future?
Fly
Following your heart
In a natural manner
Without being tied up in any way
Your heart flies.
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なかなか上手く出来ませんが、先生の『飛』の臨書です。昨年12月16日と同様に、先生の娘さんの言葉も添えました。
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When I recall new things that happened to my life last year, I instantly think of several kinds of what you might call “art marchés” I was allowed to participate in. I found out each marché had its character and clientele.
I had always believed that my calligraphy was of a certain level because I practiced under a distinguished calligrapher for a long time since childhood.
However, to my great pleasure, it turned out that I enjoyed more appreciation than I had expected from many people in a number of occasions.
Now, I am once again reminded of my good fortune to have met a renowned calligrapher and his wife, equally a splendid calligrapher herself, as my teachers; and that my late parents let me go to their school for a long time.
So, this is “delight (happiness), confidence, gratitude”.
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昨年を振り返ってまず思うのは、参加を許されたいくつかの所謂『アートマルシェ』です。それぞれがそれぞれの特質や客層を持っていました。
私は幼い頃から長い間、格の高い先生に習いましたから、自分の字はそれなりだとずっと思ってはいました。
けれどもありがたいことに、いくつもの場で多くの人たちから予想していた以上の評価をいただきました。
そこで今また思うのは、その著名な書家と、同様に立派な書家であった奥さまに出会えたことと、長い間その先生の教室に通わせてくれた今は亡き両親への感謝です。
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Two of my “Facebook friends” probably with no connection at all happened to have posted videos of “Lion dance” or 獅子舞 recently. Because I didn’t know it was still around, I was a bit surprised. Seeing it at my mother’s parents’ home when I was a child was the last time. I hear my grandpa was living large when young. So, various kinds of peddlers came to his house to sell high priced produce; and street performers, as well, for good gift money.
Thinking of it now, seeing Lion dance up close was a unique experience, however, as I was a little child, I just got terrified and cried terribly.
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『フェイスブックのお友達』の恐らく何も接点のない二人が少し前にたまたま獅子舞の動画を投稿されました。獅子舞がまだあるとは知りませんでしたので、びっくりしました。
子供の頃母の実家で見たのが最後でした。母の父は昔は羽振りが良かったらしく、高い品物を売ろうとする様々な行商人やご祝儀が目当ての大道芸人がよく来ていました。
今思えば獅子舞を間近に見るというのは珍しい体験だったはずですが、幼かった私はただ恐ろしくてぎゃん泣きしただけでした。
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O seas, mountains, rivers/
Of hometown/
Lion’s mask of the New Year lion dance/
Translation and calligraphy by Chio
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