The theme for March was 雛祭り Hinamatsuri Dolls’ Festival. Otsukaresamadeshita – well done to those who joined! Hinamatsuri was on March 3rd – it is a popular festival known as the Girls’ Festival or Dolls’ Festival. Impressive carpeted platforms display beautiful ornamental dolls of the Emperor,… Read More »Celebrating 雛祭り Hinamatsuri at Kanji Club
We investigated the main styles used in Tenkoku seal engraving, such as tensho or inten, and ancient Chinese mysterious styles such as carved into animal bones or worked into metal, discovering how these were modified and cut into stone, or also brushed onto paper. We… Read More »Exploring the inspiring styles of seal stampmaking
‘If you are cast adrift in the huge sea, bothered by troublesome dragons, fish and demons, bring awareness to the power of Kannon (Avalokitesvara Perceiver of the Sounds of the World), and the billows and waves can’t drown you ..’ We had our meditative Shakyō… Read More »Breathtaking peaks and seas pull us into meditative Shakyo
As the crocuses and daffodils shoot up and fresh green leaves begin to open, why not make a doodle or two to capture the energy of Spring! It could be a few marks or some shapes of buds, here are some examples from participants to… Read More »Creative Time – Doodling the joyful growth of Spring
At our monthly zoom shodo calligraphy group Zen Brush we embraced the spring breeze – with 春風 harukaze. There have been signs of spring here now, especially in the mild wind and sunnier days! We brushed harukaze – spring wind – in the kaisho style, the… Read More »Embracing the Spring breeze at shodo calligraphy 書道
We had a theme of night over the horizon – the deep spaces of the night sky above the city or landscape, with the vast space of the cosmos and stars and planets. It was a very chilled out relaxing group with participants working from… Read More »Cosmic doodling at the Destress drawing group
At our recent seal engraving group we welcomed some new faces, helped them get started with their designs, and we also spent some extra time looking at 基本形 Kihonkei – the basic form. We found many options in the possible forms for 2, 3 and… Read More »Finding balance and space in seal designs – Tenkoku stampmaking
At our cultural and language group Kanji Club on zoom we enjoyed marking 節分 Setsubun – the end of winter in the Japanese calendar – even although many of us had snow and ice where we were! A couple of us followed tradition and threw some… Read More »The last day of winter 節分 Setsubun
The theme for our first Kanji Club was お正月 Oshougatsu – New Year! It was a lively and lovely group, thanks to everyone who took part and embracing the language and cultural elements of the class. We learned about Japanese and Chinese characters, finding out… Read More »Discovering Japanese and Chinese characters at 漢字 Kanji Club
Shodo returned again in the new year of the cow! This month we brushed the characters from the spacious 初心 shoshin meaning first time, heart mind, or commonly as ‘beginner’s mind’. Writing this and discovering more about the deeper meanings of the kanji characters in this… Read More »Shodo calligraphy – brushing Shoshin beginner’s mind