古流盆栽教室 Ancient Bonsai Studio Wallscroll

This kakejiku or wallscroll was a custom order from the Bonsai in the Bluegrass convention and is already sold. It reads phonetically in Japanese as Koryuu Bonsai Kyoushitsu. There were two challenges in getting this translation accurate. The first was the word ancient. I knew one word for this and it was 古代 Kodai. But had we used this word the context would have meant in a historical, and not artistic sense. My wife had a more colloquial suggestion in using Ryuu. Ryuu is a designation of a school, sect, philosophy, or methodology for an art. A conversation may go as follows:

Nakano San: 空手をします。Karate wo shimasu. (I do Karate)

Tanaka San: どんな流派ですか。 Don na ryuuha desuka? (Which style do you study?)

Nakano San: 松涛館です。Shoutoukan desu. (The shoutoukan style.)

In other words Yoshimi’s translation has individualized the scroll to not only be the name of the company or school, but could also become his own bonsai school of philosophy in the future depending on use of the term.

The second dilemma was the word studio. There could have been many translations such as 校kou for a more formal school, but I opted to go with the word used by my Sensei for his scroll classroom which is Kyoushitsu and would literally be translated as teaching room, but is the word studio in most online dictionaries.

The writing is done in a Gyousho, semi-cursive style. The scroll cloths consist of a light Ichimonji that has flowing gold & silver lines which reminded me of the delicately styled bonsai branches. The brown cloth, although not as dark as the décor of his studio, will hopefully be a good transition color between the lighter color wall and the darker floor. (Only after hanging the scroll in the room will we be sure if this was correct or not.) The cloth does have a lotus flower design, a common Buddhist symbol, and it is capped at the top with a 金茶 Kincha or Dark Gold hanging string and the軸先 Jikusaki  (end pieces at the bottom) are a beautiful but simple wood laquer 軸木黒塗り.   

Scroll dimensions are as follows:

Name in Kanji	Name in English	Size in Bun	Size in Millimeters	Size in Inches
天	Ten	98	296.94	11.69
上一文字	Ue Ichimonji	11	33.33	1.31
紙本の幅さ	Artwork Width	54	163.62	6.44
紙本の長さ	Artwork Length	221	669.63	26.36
柱	Pillars	12	36.36	1.43
下一文字	Shita Ichimonji	6	18.18	0.72
地	Chi	70	212.1	8.35
掛け軸の幅さ	Scroll Width	78	236.34	9.30
掛け軸の長さ	Scroll Length	406	1230.18	48.43