Thursday, January 20, 2011

Kyokushin Karate Scroll

This large scroll has a mix of Calligraphy and Sumi-e. The writing is for a Karate Style called 極真会 Kyokushin Kai. This was developed by a Korean-Japanese Master named Masutatsu Oyama. 大山倍達 You can read more about it on wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyokushin_kaikan                                              If you would like to work with us to design a personalized handmade kakejiku contact to Jonathan Maples at sales@customjapanesecalligraphy.com. I will send to you a design workbook to help you design all aspects of your scroll.

What I love most about this scroll is the mellow color of the Antique Cloth. The customer also requested Sumi-e to be drawn. There are two phoenixes facing each other at the top of the artwork and in the lower right hand corner is a Kanku. In the lower left hand corner is the logo of the dojo, which is a karateka in a seza (kneeling) position for meditation.

In picking the Ichimonji for this scroll, I was conflicted. A more neutral brown or gold may have worked, but I wanted to try something different. I used the red orange clouds for the Karateka to reach for the sky and to achieve lofty goals, and so I used the orange/red cloth. The scroll is completed by utilizing a beautiful dark brown dully lacquered wood jikusaki and a gold with white pattern Kakehimo. The writing tries to mimic the writing of the Kyokushin Kai in the Honbu in Japan.

The total scroll length is a little over 5.5 feet and the width is 14 inches. Dimensions of the scroll in traditional bun measurement as follows:


天 Ten 124

上一文字 Ue Ichimonji 9

紙本の幅さ Artwork Width 86

紙本の長さ Artwork Length 343
柱 Pillars 16
下一文字 Shita Ichimonji 5
地 Chi 87
掛け軸の幅さ Scroll Width 118
掛け軸の長さ Scroll Length 568

1 comment:

Kakejiku said...

Comment from Customer...

Hi Mr. Maples . I received the scroll today and without opening it up I presented to my Sensei- Sensei Bob Hopwood from Connecticut Budo Karate Dojo . It was lot of pressure on me at that moment but........it came out amazing . Everybody including Sensei liked it. Good job . Thank You very much for making it . Osu!