Saturday, August 28, 2010

Autumn Japanese Seasonal Phrase

This phrase is from the August issue of the Shunju Calligraphy Society's assignment workbook. The phrase is for the beginning of the Autumn season, and would be a beautiful phrase to put into a scroll.

Rough Translation is, "To hear the Falling Leaves At Your Hometown".

秋屋葉聲中
If you would like to order a custom scroll there are three ways to get started: 1. Go to my shopping site at www.shop.customjapanesecalligraphy.com 2. Download my scroll design workbook from my website at www.customjapanesecalligraphy.com to read about the concepts behind kakejiku or wallscroll design. 3. E-mail to me directly at sales@customjapanesecalligraphy.com 

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Kakejiku for Martial Artist

忍耐 創造 Nintai Souzou Patience Creativity
If you would like to order a custom scroll there are three ways to get started: 1. Go to my shopping site at www.shop.customjapanesecalligraphy.com 2. Download my scroll design workbook from my website at www.customjapanesecalligraphy.com to read about the concepts behind kakejiku or wallscroll design. 3. E-mail to me directly at sales@customjapanesecalligraphy.com 


This hanging scroll (掛け軸Kakejiku) was made as a gift for a martial artist. It is going as a set with a hand-made 剖検 Bouken, which is the wooden training sword used for martial arts training. The taupe cloth provides a sense of the natural world. The red ichimonji was selected to remind the practitioner of swordsmanship that the sword can draw blood. Care should be taken to use it for self-defense purposes only. The black lacquered wood jikusaki is a perfect complement to this scroll.

This scroll is written in the Gyousho style by 龍玉Ryugyoku. Some individuals have looked on keywords specifically for styles of writing. One way to tell if a piece is written in the semi-cursive style is that the character is still legible, but strokes will be connected by tapered, faint lines.

Name in Kanji Name in English Size in Bun Size in Inches

天 Ten 144 17.18

上一文字 Ue Ichimonji 10 1.19

紙本の幅さ Artwork Width 78 9.30

紙本の長さ Artwork Length 111 13.24

柱 Pillars 25 2.98

下一文字 Shita Ichimonji 6 0.72

地 Chi 88 10.50

掛け軸の幅さ Scroll Width 128 15.27

掛け軸の長さ Scroll Length 359 42.83

Monday, August 9, 2010

Martial Art Scroll for First Name

This scroll was made for a Martial Artist from the State of Washington. This dojo has always been very supportive of my work and has ordered several scrolls. It makes me feel good when I receive multiple orders from the same customer, as it is confirmation that the customer is pleased with the end product.

If you would like to order a custom scroll there are three ways to get started: 1. Go to my shopping site at www.shop.customjapanesecalligraphy.com 2. Download my scroll design workbook from my website at www.customjapanesecalligraphy.com to read about the concepts behind kakejiku or wallscroll design. 3. E-mail to me directly at sales@customjapanesecalligraphy.com 

This is the translation of the first name Shaylee. In Hiragana we translated it to the phonetic spelling of しえり Shi e ri. 士 is the same character as that written in Bushido or warrior, it has the meaning of acolyte. 恵 is the character that can read e, but is often Megumi and means to be blessed. 里 is the character for Ri or Sato and is your parents hometown village. The translation we gave is the Warrior of the Blessed hometown. Both characters Megumi and Ri are commonly used in Japanese girl’s names.

The customer chose the beautiful purple rose cloth, which is now sold out. They requested a beautiful gold ichimonji for the border. To provide a strong accent, a much wider 14 bun top and 9 bun bottom was selected for the size. This is written in the Kaisho, block print style by Ryugyoku.

Scroll dimensions in bun followed by inches in parantheses:

Ten 天: 122 (14.57)

Ue Ichimonji 上一文字: 14 (1.67)

Shihon Tate 紙本縦: 107 (12.76)

Shihon Yoko 紙本横: 78 (9.30)

Shita Ichimonji下一文字 : 9 (1.07)

Chi 地: 58 (6.92)

Kakejiku no Habasa 掛け軸の幅さ: 110 (13.12)

Kakejiku no Nagasa 掛け軸の長さ: 310 (36.98)