I tried to create a new version of “calligraphy on simple postcards”, this time combining letters used in modern days and my favorite, ancient letters.

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However, the results don’t look good enough and I wondered how and where I did wrong and found out there was way too little blank space.

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Now, I am determined to try to make better works; for three reasons,

(1) I love any kind of combination,

(2) ancient letters naturally are closer to “pictures”, origin of letters and

(3) these small simple works of art may realize the ideal “Joy of calligraphy in daily lives” held out by my first calligraphy teacher the late Mr. Akiyama Kodo (秋山公道).

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Even when they land somewhere/

Autumn butterflies/

Keep moving their wings up and down/

Translation and calligraphy by Chio

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I wasn’t sure whether these were butterflies or moths, though.

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Here again, I chose the letter for “autumn” in the uncommon form.  In short, I like the letter written in this vertically reversed structure.

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A couple of decades ago, who would have imagined this event be so big in this country?

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The photo shows one corner of the exhibition, TRZY RZEKI 2017 KYOTO POZNAN, held in Poznań, Poland in November 2017.

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Because both my first calligraphy teacher, the late Mr. Akiyama Kodo (秋山公道) and my mother were born in the year of the dragon, one of the twelve old Chinese zodiac signs, the letter dragon (龍) is my favorite.  Here I added another letter “flying” (飛) to the letter “dragon”.

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Looking back at the event, now I think I may have been turning to those two people closest to me at the unconscious level, trying to win their support for the success of this exhibition, a very important occasion in my career as a calligrapher.

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Since then, I have been more than grateful for having opportunities to perform calligraphy demonstration a couple of times while I stayed in the city of Poznań.

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It is a passage from a poem of ancient China that expresses the scene of the autumn found everywhere and a cool, pleasant breeze is blowing all around.

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And the line goes on to say it is just like the moment of your obtaining enlightenment or spiritual transcendence.

That is, just like the clear fall sky, your future prospect on life will take shape at a breath.

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And here again, I chose the letter, autumn, in the vertically reversed form.

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I added a new video on my YouTube channel that I newly set up.

Check this and enjoy my calligraphy!

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For, this one shows how letters are being born out of ink, a brush, paper and an artist’s arm.

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This brilliant device will certainly show you the essence of calligraphy.

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Here is a brief passage from an ancient Chinese poem that expresses a woman’s beauty.

“When smiling, she is a flower close to your eyes.”

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What is truth?

Truth is what?

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The photo shows “Truth” by my first calligraphy teacher, the late Mr. Akiyama Kodo (秋山公道) who was a distinguished calligrapher.

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I wonder what he intended to express.

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I have been wondering whether people’s speech exactly reflect their minds or the opposite.

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Come to think of it, this “wondering” of mine is not something new at all.

I have been wondering in this way as long as I remember.

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This is a quite well-known haiku by Basho (松尾芭蕉), one of the most popular haiku poets in early Edo period in Japan.

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Apparently, my most important friend as to my career as a calligrapher likes it, because he quoted it in his recent message to me.

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However, my biggest interest and what I wanted to show the readers here is the structure of the Chinese character for “autumn”.

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The letter has two parts, in other words it can be vertically divided into two parts.  And we usually write it just the opposite way from how I did here.  However, what did here is never a mistake.

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In short, when it comes to writing some Chinese characters, it doesn’t matter which way you put the two parts, that is, it isn’t very strictly defined which part should be right and which one should be put left side.

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To sum up, concerning how Chinese characters should be written, there is much wider latitude than people would usually expect.

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On this road/

No one will follow me/

In the autumn evening/

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Here is a new video on my YouTube channel that I newly set up.

Check this and enjoy my calligraphy!

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