At the last Zen Brush calligraphy group on zoom we were inspired by the two well known characters dou 道 (Way/ road/path) and shin or kokoro 心 (heart/mind/spirit). Brushing them in the kaisho as well as the sousho ‘grass writing’ styles, we explored their meanings,… Read More »Spirit of the way in each Shodo stroke
At our recent Zen Brush shodo group – our first online ☺️ – we enjoyed brushing the character 禅 Zen in four very different styles, which were developed over centuries. It was really intriguing to explore the meanings of the different parts of the kanji… Read More »Brushing Zen at online Shodo
At our Zen Brush ? calligraphy group coming up on Monday the group will be working from the varied styles and strokes of the mysterious and graceful character 禅 for Zen. And we will explore the multi layered meanings within the kanji character itself. It… Read More »Practicing zen in different styles of shodo calligraphy
Try out writing spring (or vernal) equinox – Shunbun 春分 – using Japanese Shodo calligraphy, or in your own style in any language! These two kanji on their own literally mean spring and segment/part/share. March Equinox – this is the time equal day and night, when… Read More »Let’s write Spring Equinox
the heavens and earth are dark and yellow the universe and timeboundless Senjimon 千字文thousand character classic We continued to work from the Thousand Character Classic 千字文 – Senjimon this time at the last Zen Heart Brush, working with genkou 玄黄, partly inspired by the delightful… Read More »Mysterious universe calligraphy at Zen Heart Brush
At the last Zen Heart Brush we explored the Kaisho and Sosho styles of shodo calligraphy, working with tenchi 天地. We were inspired by the examples of calligrapher Chiei 智永 from his version of the fascinating Thousand Character Classic 千字文 – Senjimon. His name means… Read More »Inspired by the examples of calligrapher Chiei
At the Zen Heart Brush in November, we practiced ‘生命 seimei – life’ in the cosy Kagyu Samye Dzong, Tibetan Buddhist centre. Winter has arrived and energy is waning in Glasgow just now but we vigorously enjoyed writing ‘life’! We talked about life, the elements,… Read More »生命 – life springing up with shodo calligraphy
In October at our Zen Heart Brush group, we hamonized with the season and decided to write ‘koyo, 紅葉’ autumn colours. To help us get in the mood and connect with the natural feeling, there were some red and golden leaves on the table to… Read More »Feeling the autumn colours in our shodo calligraphy group…
We had a lovely day at the Cowden Japanese Garden with enthusiastic people taking part, it was a colourful autumn day and tranquil atmosphere, a perfect setting to enjoy a workshop of Japanese shodo calligraphy. After a short talk about shodo we slowly strolled outside,… Read More »Japanese shodo calligraphy at the beautiful autumnal Cowden Japanese Garden
In June at our Zen Heart Brush Japanese calligraphy group, we practised the chapter title from poet and zen mater Dogen’s Shobogenzo “有時” uji – being time, and talked about the meanings of this, and the meanings of the individual characters themselves, which was surprising… Read More »Summer months of shodo calligraphy at Zen Heart Brush