Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Aikido Kakejiku

This is an order for a custom Aikido Kakejiku for a dojo on the East Coast. It was made with a rose/wine colored cloth in the Maru Hyougu style. It is paired with a gold on gold ichimonji and a rosewood jikusaki. The hanging string was the kincha (gold).

It is written in gyousho style, by Yoshimi Yamada Maples.

If you would like to order a custom handmade gift such as this contact to sales@customjapanesecalligraphy.com.

Dimensions as follows:
    Name in English Size in Bun Size in Inches
Ten 102 12.17
上一文字 Ue Ichimonji 13 1.55
紙本の幅さ Artwork Width 55 6.56
紙本の長さ Artwork Length 221 26.36
Pillars 17 2.03
下一文字 Shita Ichimonji 8 0.95
Chi 70 8.35
掛け軸の幅さ Scroll Width 89 10.62
掛け軸の長さ Scroll Length 414 49.39

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Sanso Collection Okada Hanko

I have been really blessed to work on limited reproductions of several scrolls in the Sanso Collection. I do not have rights to the photos so can not post the finished scrolls. One painting was a long work of a landscaped in the Fukuro Hyougu style. It had suji bordering the entire painting. The end result was a scroll about 8 feet long by 1 foot wide. Okada Hanko (岡田半江)was a Japanee painter that lived from (1782-1846). Here are links to samples of his work.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Sanso Collection - Fugai Ekun

I have been blessed to work on mounting several prints into scrolls for the Sanso Collection (山荘コレクション) owned by the late Peter Drucker. As I do not own any rights, I can not post the pictures themselves, but will share my own personal feelings as I get to work on framing these paintings and my connection to what these artists say to me. This is a painting by Fugai Ekun (1568-1654). Based on the link below, these are the characters 風外 I believe his last name translates to based upon the link below. http://zenpaintings.com/artist-fugai.htm This particular painting is titled Bodhidharma Crossing the Yangtze on a Reed. This is based on some of the traditional lore surrounding the figure Daruma, which you can read about here. http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/daruma.shtml This scroll was done in the Yamato Hyougu style. It may have been more suited in a Butsuhyougu style, but the owner was trying to emulate the original styling of the scroll. What I really like is the cloth selections for this scroll. Two dark cloths were used, and typically I like a light to dark, or dark to light combination. However, in this case the black contrasting with the dark brown seems to reinforce the image of the painting.

Saturday, December 5, 2015

Sanso Collection - Painting by Urakami Gyokudo

I have been blessed to work on mounting several prints into scrolls for the Sanso Collection (山荘コレクション) owned by the late Peter Drucker. As I do not own any rights, I can not post the pictures themselves, but will share my own personal feelings as I get to work on framing these paintings and my connection to what these artists say to me. The first print I worked on, is by Urakami Gyokudo (浦上玉堂). Urakami Gyokudo was a Japanese painter, musician, poet and calligrapher who lived from 1745 to 1820. While alive, he was a famed player of the zither, and posthumously as a painter. The specific painting I have worked on is titled, "Quietly Observing Summer Mountains". It is a very large print almost 21 inches wide by 50 inches tall. In it there is a landscape painting with a man on a bridge. When I first looked at the painting, I assumed it was summer because of the dress of the man, and the prominent willow tree painted, which is often a symbol of summer. There is the usual stream running through the low valley and three peaks. What really caught my eye in this painting was a dabbed ink at the very top of the highest peak. I do not know if it is really anything, but to me is very reminiscent of the shape of the Buddha. Now, I do not know much about the teachings of Buddhism, but from my Judeo-Christian background, I felt that Urakami is not just communicating the man observing his surroundings, but realizes that from his vantage point, he must find a way to enlightenment (in other words, climb to reach the Buddha) and seek a path along the rokudo. I may be reading more into this than there really is, but that has been my impression everytime I get to see the print.