Kakejiku Hanging in Italy

 

I am blessed to see my artwork in many countries. This plum blossom sumie is in Italy. Painted by the artist Daniela Caseli. This is what she said, "Hello Jonathan, hope you are fine. I have good news. Fortunately yesterday I got my parcel. This is a picture of your awesome work, you are a nice artist. See you soon. Many Thanks Indeed. Best wishes Daniela." These kind words make me feel so good! And likewise you are a master painter, Daniela! 

Miyamoto Musashi Sumi-e Scroll

 This work reminds me of a beautiful story about 宮本武蔵Miyamoto Musashi, who many martial arts experts consider the most deadly swordsman of all time. 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                                 During his life, a feud brewed between two Samurai. One was Sasaki Kojiro and the other was Miyamoto Musashi. An isolated island was decided upon as the place for a sword duel, between these two warriors. Sasaki was famous for his use of an extra-ordinarily long katana. It is said in legend that his training was completed after he learned to kill a swift swallow mid-flight by this sword. Musashi on the other hand gained his reputation by defeating the entire founding family of a fencing school, and when outnumbered would utilize a fighting style with two swords.

As the duel date approached, Musashi climbed in a boat seemingly unarmed. He rowed to the island and the people who had gathered to witness the duel were still amazed to find him unarmed. Every day Musashi would get up early and sit on the beach from different positions as the sun would rise. Finally still unarmed on the day of the battle Musashi arose early and positioned himself on the beach with only the oar in hand as his weapon. Sasaki, quite confident, thought he could easily dispatch this enemy. Musashi waited for several minutes and at an exact moment that only he knew, rushed for the attack. As Sasaki prepared his sword, the light of the sun flashed off the blade into his eyes, momentarily blinding him. Defenseless, Musashi struck Sasaki with one blow to the top of the head with the long oar and killed him.

So why am I telling you this story, because when I saw this picture this story was the first thing to come to mind; Musashi meditating on the beach and planning in his mind the angle of the sun and the time of attack. I used this inspiration to think of clear sky on a beach, and used this sky patterned cloth to evoke the peaceful images and painstaking planning in which Musashi used to stake his life in a duel. So although, there is peace to the work, it forebodes a more terrible moment in history yet to come.

You can read more about Musashi’s Martial Art philosophy and life by reading The Book of Five Rings. It has been translated several times by different individuals. In addition to being a great warrior, he was also a poet, calligrapher and artist.

Matsuo Basho Haiku drawn by Teiko Applebaum

This Scroll is Sold.

The writing on this scroll is a famous haiku 　俳句 poem by Matsuo Basho. It reads

Shizukesaya
閑けさや
Oh in the quietude

Iwa ni Shimi iru
岩にしみいる
Seeping into the rock

Semi no Koe
蝉の声
The voices of cicadas.

Haiku poetry is formed by a five/seven/five mora pattern. It typically must contain some mention of the season of the year. In this case, the deafening sound of the Cicaida emerging is an event that happens every year in the summer.

In order to complement this poem, I used a leaf pattern of the cloth. This scroll is in the Maru Hyougu style with the Ten, Chi and Hashira surrounding the work with the Ichimonji. I used two primary colors, the Red Kinran and Blue Kireji, to provide a strong contrast for the centerpiece of the scroll. The blue leaf cloth I have had for some time, and was looking for the correct time to use it. The Semi in this work standing on the leaf stem was a good match.

This picture was drawn by Sumi-e artist Teiko Applebaum of Seattle. I have grown to love her style of painting which is both plain and straightforward.
The scroll measures roughly 2 Feet long by 1 Foot wide and is priced at $78.56 including all taxes and shipping within the United States. For questions on this or other custom scrolls e-mail to http://www.blogger.com/sales@customjapanesecalligraphy.com