I was asked to create a shodo for Novel Young Samurai Book 2 (Indonesian edition), then here is the result. I created a tanka (Japanese poetry), the title is 若手侍。
Sabishigaru
Sasurai muen
Mina hateru
Omoishiraseru
Taitougomen
Feeling lonely
Wandering alone in a strange country, helpless..
Everyone is dead
To have a revenge
Must become a non samurai granted the privilege of wearing a sword
The meaning:
“Even though I understand
that Haiku is supposed to be about seasons,
but I write haiku about something I desire (sword and brush).”
Explanation:
Because in Indonesia we don’t have seasons like in Japan, so I cannot by nature write about seasons which I never experience. So I write about anything I love instead (i.e. sword and brush).
More information about my original haiku collection please read here.
Having flood for 3 days, I woke up this morning and saw that it’s a sunny day. The flood has also disappeared last night. Feel the new energy within me, I grabbed my fude (brush), suzuri (ink stone), hanshi (Japanese paper) and sumi (ink stick), then I practiced kana shodo. This gave me more spirit when accompanied by old Japanese love songs; amayadori, kokoro no tomo, first love (new one), and unchanging love (new one).
This video is taken from my photo collections over the years along the journey of searching knowledge of Samurai Swordsmanship (iaijutsu) and Japanese Calligraphy (shodo). The journey is not over yet, in fact it’s a life-time journey. The farther I have gone through the paths, the more far away the destination will be.
If you watch a lot of samurai movies you will probably recognize this book.
This is my new book I’ve just got today. Ando sensei starts giving me a lot of homeworks of composition in Nihongo. At first, I always use hanshi and fude to write my composition instead of using special paper with grids that is usually used by Nihongo students to practice composition in Japanese language courses. Ando sensei understands that I want to always practice my shodo while studying Nihongo, and that’s because more fun for me. Thanks God, because if I study Nihongo at other Nihongo courses, the teachers wouldn’t have allowed me to do so.
Now that I think it would be more fun to write my composition on this traditional style book, besides my homework will be collected in one place.
My shodo writing below is not just a shodo pieces, but these are the homework Ando sensei gave me. Ando sensei doesn’t correct my shodo writing, because she is not a shodo teacher, but she corrects my Nihongo grammar. Since I am still a beginner in Nihongo than this composition is still at beginner level, but what’s more important for me is enjoying studying Nihongo while keep practicing my shodo writing.
Today I received my new kakejiku I ordered specially with bands. This kakejiku is covered with damask silk. The size is 36cm x 145cm. This blank kakejiku is not sold as a blank one, but with custom calligraphy.
