At our April Kanji Club group, we celebrated Spring with Hanami 花見, the Japanese custom of enjoying the beauty of flowers, often cherry blossoms. We explored the visual meanings of the two kanji and sounds, as well as some other kanji characters and their radical… Read More »Discovering the meanings of Hanami 花見
We had a spiky and swirly theme of leaves and pattern, as more green leaves and blossoms have been appearing outside to joyfully greet us ? It was a friendly small group and a relaxing time doodling some funky leafy shapes. We had some warm… Read More »Edges, spikes and curves of leafy patterns
At our recent Zen Brush calligraphy group we brushed a lot of strokes and had fun laying out the kanji. The text we copied was the first line of Chapter seven of Lao Tzu’s mystical Tao Te Ching (道德經 The Way of Virtue Classic, expressing… Read More »Heaven and Earth in Shodo calligraphy
We had a lovely couple of hours of Shakyō Sutra copying, working on the second half of the Lotus Sutra Chapter 25 Bodhisattva of Compassion Universal Gateway (Fumonbonge). It is a fascinating, poetic and visually spectacular chapter, with many interesting characters to discover meanings from, and engage… Read More »Meditative Shakyo tracing of the universal gateway
We have a very different theme this month ? thanks to Mark, who kindly sent me a picture of his acrylic paining of a cute passenger train in the Yorkshire Dales and Ribblehead Viaduct, with lovely open space and light. Do you have a favourite… Read More »Creative Time– draw your favourite Public Transport or work vehicle!
We had a peaceful shodo calligraphy session together meditatively brushing. The theme we brushed was Zazen zen sitting meditation, and we preceded this with enso 円相 brushing, which is a great practice in itself and helps you express and feel interconnection with all things and… Read More »Brushing Zazen Meditation and Enso Zen Circle
At our Destress drawing and doodling group we relaxed with a theme of Spring growth and new life and energy emerging! Blair had some daffodils and shoots and buds to look at and we had photos too for inspiration. Some of us drew with pencils… Read More »Doodling spring joy and growth at Destress
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