If you every thought that Nancy Reagan’s campaign in the 80’s to Just Say no to drugs was at best a joke, welcome to Japan. Because “If you feel like smoking, you should slurp some udon.” “If you want some white powder, flour is better.” That is all. Advertisements
Cherry blossoms peak like Olympic gymnasts, young and fast. It’s over before you know the best of it was last weekend. This week the petals are falling like snow, replaced with a new green that’s almost yellow. And I stop wondering why the aesthetic of Japanese poetry is sad and ephemeral.
Kanji is deep. Okay, all Shodo and Japanese language is deep. And it comes from Chinese, so Chinese is deep. All language is deep. What I’m trying to say is that this months kanji took me down a rabbit hole. The words are literally “one step thousand gold.” There’s got to be a good fortune … More Brushes
I was on the train the other day, heading back from Odawara to Tokyo. It’s not too far, just long enough to drink two Chu-Hi, eat some cheese-tara and watch the rice fields and mountains transform into concrete and steel. After the second chu-hi I need a bio-break. I head out to the men’s room, … More Swallow Service
I haven’t been away from the brushes, to be honest. I just haven’t posted about it. I still go every Saturday (except Xmas and New Years was damned busy at work). All the kanji I write seems to contain a lot of wisdom, so I figured I’d share. Below is my kanji for December. It … More Back to the Brushes
When I reached 1st dan in calligraphy earlier this year, I needed to submit two works. One was freehand. The other was a copy. The following is what I needed to copy. And here is my copy. I should have let the ink dry up a bit more, but I think that the shape of … More Two Waka
In psychology, they say there are four stages of competence. They rise like this: 1) Unconscious Incompetence, when you suck so bad you don’t even know how bad you suck, 2) Conscious Incompetence, when you know you suck and just exactly how badly, 3) Conscious Competence, when you are good but you really gotta concentrate … More Conscious Incompetence- Shodan Style
