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
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
At Shakyō Sutra copying practice (online on zoom) we traced or copied two short verses which are often read or chanted in zen and other schools – the Kaikyōge Opening the Sutras Verse and the Fuekō Turning of Merit. They are deep and inspiring short verses, the Fuekō directly coming… Read More »Unsurpassed and deep – tracing the Kaikyōge and Fuekō
We looked closely at the styles of in 印 stamps at the Tenkoku 篆刻 seal engraving group, particularly at Japanese Master Wakabayashi. Wakabayashi Shūjō was like a grandfather to Blair who started studying shodō calligraphy with him in 2002. He kindly introduced Blair to Tenkoku seal engraving and the materials… Read More »Discovering beauty in Japanese and Chinese stamps
Inspired by one of Chinese poet Han Shan’s Cold Mountain poems, we brushed the characters for autumn moon – shūgetsu 秋月, at our online Shodo group Zen Brush. Some of us were lucky to catch a glimpse of the waxing crescent moon in the early evening above the… Read More »Shodo of the autumn moon shining in the blue pool..
At the November 篆刻 tenkoku (seal engraving) group meeting online by zoom, Blair gave an in depth demonstration of carving techniques to directly guide participants and give them tips on this exciting part of the process! This covered how to handle and work with each… Read More »Cutting and carving stones for Japanese and Chinese stamps
At our Shakyo group, co-hosted with Glasgow Zen Group, we enjoyed peacefully copying the Boundless Life Ten Phrase Kannon Sutra 延命十句観音経. It felt right to trace it at this time, being a sutra that has been close to people’s hearts over the centuries and considered… Read More »Shakyo 写経 copying the sutra of boundless awareness and life
We brushed 愛 Ai – Love, care, affection, craving/ attachment – at our Monday online Zen brush Shodo calligraphy 書道 group in October. It was inspiring to work with this single kanji (Chinese character) as it is so delightful to brush in the shodo styles. Please have… Read More »Opening your heart to 愛 Ai Love in Shodo
Brushing Love 愛 ai in the old tensho style of Japanese and Chinese calligraphy with deep orange-red sumi 🙂 Ai is also fun to brush in the more flowing sosho grass style of shodo calligraphy, in a much more simplified form. As well as love or… Read More »Love 愛 Ai in Shodo calligraphy
It was an easygoing and peaceful 篆刻 tenkoku (seal engraving) group where we each worked on designs for stamps (in 印) or worked on our stones or erasers (the keshigomu method). Thanks for taking part. There was some time to look at the very varied… Read More »Dynamic lines at Tenkoku seal engraving