This scroll is for a customer’s engagement/anniversary gift to her fiancée. This is written in the かな kana style, which is a Native calligraphy style of Japan. It is a poem, and in English it reads, “You are my Sun and Stars, the light of my Heart, the moon in my Dark Night.” In Japanese it reads, 「あなたは私の太陽であり 星であり 心を照らす光 そして暗い夜に浮かぶ月」Anata wa Watakushi no Taiyou de ari, hoshi de ari, Kokoro wo terasu hikari, soshite Kurai yoru ni uakubu tsuki.
My wife was busy at this time, so I had the calligraphy done by Natsuko Horinouchi. She is a Japanese calligrapher, who lives in Germany. I thought she did a very good job, and offset the lines slightly to emphasize the meanings of the lines.
The scroll is done in a light red, to symbolize love. Because this is a gift to her fiancée, for the Ichimonji I used a cloth that has the characters 福 fuku and 寿 kotobuki embroidered in the cloth. These two words mean Happiness & Congratulations respectively. I made it this way so that they will be able to celebrate many happy years together. The scroll is finished with the 桜花 ouka or Cherry Blossom colored Kakehimo. This is a light pink, and it is a good complimentary color to the light red. The scroll is also completed with 紫檀shitan Rosewood jikusaki.
Dimensions of the scroll are as follows:
Name in Kanji Name in English Size in Bun (Inches)
天 Ten 106 (12.64)
上一文字 Ue Ichimonji 11 (1.31)
紙本の幅さ Artwork Width 78 (9.30)
紙本の長さ Artwork Length 113 (13.48)
柱 Pillars 20 (2.39)
下一文字 Shita Ichimonji 7 (0.84)
地 Chi 80 (9.54)
掛け軸の幅さ Scroll Width 118 (14.08)
掛け軸の長さ Scroll Length 317 (37.82)
This scroll was made for a customer that ordered a shikishi long ago. This person makes pottery for bonsai. He has some very beautiful and elegant glazes with his pottery. The striations in the pottery reminded me of his beautiful glazes so I was finally able to make a scroll to hang for the shikishi.
