Long Time Expat In Japan
Kana seems like my strong suit, 4th kyu. But I'm stagnating these days, not seeing any progress. I'm sure I know what it is. I just practice once a week. And I only do kana one of the weeks in the month. Time to make a decision, double down or maybe more. Not just this … Continue reading September Shodo
So what does summertime fun have to do with floating melons and submerged plums, you might be wondering. Well, I'm glad you asked. Another four character idiom for shodo this month. See the bit of kanji below (yes, my brush was a little too soaked with ink, but it was the best of the bunch): … Continue reading End of Summer Fun
Last week I started to carve my own hanko. My Sensei found me a stone. Don't know what kind. But one thing I can tell you is that it is very soft. You can smooth it down with sandpaper. Which is how I flattened it out to prep the surface. First with rough sandpaper. Then … Continue reading Making a Hanko
June was a lean month in shodo. I go with my littlest to the classes on Saturday. Really just going to the sensei's house around 10, writing, getting pointers and leaving around noon. But June was filled with events for both my girls. Chorus, piano, chorus again. I think I only went to shodo once … Continue reading Anniversary
I love my sensei. She's a peach, really. She also doesn't pull punches. Been plugging away. Ranked up in kana a bunch of times, kanji a little less. But my pen writing just hasn't budged. Last month sensei likened my pen writing to that of stroke victims she knows. I think it is time to take … Continue reading Break Time
Last month, I submitted some hiragana that was in a really old style, more like really cursive kanji. It was a lot of fun because you can kind of see where modern hiragana comes from. To be honest, half the time I didn't know what I was writing. I just copied what I saw. Still, … Continue reading Hiragana
Last week I was out in Odawara for work, and I came across a little Shodo shop. It was tiny, and a bit messy, but the two old ladies running the place were really nice. I bought a new hanko there. They had a little stand with hanko, engraved seals. In calligraphy you sign your … Continue reading My New Hanko
Ok, so not Gangnam Style, but even better, Tei Dosho style! Tei Dosho, as they say in Japan, was a Chinese official during the Northern Wei Dynasty. In Chinese, his name is pronounced Zheng Daozhao, and he was Wei awesome. When was the Northern Wei Dynasty? Like 386-534 AD. He is way cooler than Park … Continue reading Tei Dosho style
The folks that run the Shodo ranking are pretty smart, I figure. I wrote about the ranking system before, kind of like belts in karate, yellow, purple, green, brown, black. There are twenty or so ranks. Getting to the first dan (like a black belt) is a long process, but achievable, with tiny incremental steps. … Continue reading December Shodo Level Up
My sensei turned me on to a style of calligraphy based on a famous calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty. Yan Zhenqing (Gan Shinkei in Japanese) was a governor during the Tang Dynasty. Apparently he was pretty wild at the time. His style had really thick vertical lines with thin horizontals. What I wrote here is … Continue reading Yan Zhengqing Style
B.S. Donovan 